1557. The bond or covenant signed at Edinburgh, by the duke of Argyle and others, renouncing the congregation of
Satan, with all the superstitious, abominations and idolatry thereof.
1586. In Verde, in Hanover, there fell large quantities of matter, partly red, partly blackened, accompanied by lightning and thunder, a fiery meteor, which burst with a loud noise. This matter burnt the boards on which it fell.
1610. The new bell of the cathedral church of Lincoln, called Great Tom, placed in the steeple of St. Mary. It is the largest bell in England, being seven feet in diameter at the mouth.
1632. De Vries, on his second voyage, arrived at the Delaware river. He found that the little colony, left here two years before (see [Dec. 12]), had been destroyed by the Indians, and the ground strewed with the skulls and bones of his murdered countrymen.
1647. Buonaventura Cavalieri, an Italian astronomer, died. He was the pupil of Galileo, and enjoyed a remarkable reputation in his day, but has descended to posterity solely through his method of indivisibles, one of the predecessors of the doctrine of fluxions.
1658. John Micrelius, professor of divinity at Stettin, died; a distinguished theological disputant.
1688. The abdication or flight of James II, and revolution in England.
1699. Captain Dampier arrived at the island of Papua or New Guinea, in Australasia, and named its eastern extremity New Britain.
1705. Pedro, king of Portugal, died in the 58th year of his age. Juan IV succeeded.