1816. French general Vandamme, resident at Ghent, arrested and sent to Brussels.
1816. Meeting of the citizens of London at Spafields; about 20,000 assembled to receive the report of Mr. Hunt, who had been appointed to present a petition to the prince regent, praying that two or three hundred thousand pounds should be appropriated out of the civil list fund for the relief of the poor. Only five thousand was granted, whereupon great disturbances took place.
1848. Ferdinand I, emperor of Austria, abdicated the throne, and Francis Joseph, his nephew was proclaimed emperor.
1849. Adelaide, the queen dowager of England, died.
1851. Louis Napoleon decreed in the name of the French people, that the national assembly and council of state were dissolved, that universal suffrage was re-established, that the first military division was in a state of siege, and that the French people were convoked in the electoral colleges from December 14 to Dec. 21.
1852. Louis Napoleon publicly proclaimed emperor at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, under the name of Napoleon III. The emperor entered Paris from St. Cloud, and took up his residence in the Tuilleries. 80,000 troops were under arms, and the day was celebrated as a grand holiday in Paris, and in the evening there was a grand illumination.
1853. The steamer Winfield Scott, having on board 500 passengers and $1,100,000 in gold, was lost in a fog at night, about 500 miles from San Francisco; the passengers and treasure were saved.
DECEMBER 3.
69 B. C. The senate published a general thanksgiving in the name of Cicero for preserving the city from the Catalinian conspiracy. It was the first that had ever been decreed to any man in the gown; all other thanksgivings having been appointed for some particular service only.
1553. Pedro de Valdivia, having conquered the greater portion of Chili, and founded the city of Conception, was attacked by the Araucanians, defeated and made prisoner.