1822. John Aikin, an English surgeon, died; better known as a writer of great erudition. He edited the first twenty volumes of the Monthly Magazine, the Athenæum, various editions of the poets, and was one of the writers of the General Biographical Dictionary in 10 vols. quarto.
1832. Victor Jacquemont, a distinguished French naturalist, died at Bombay, aged 32.
1835. The rail road from Nuremberg to Furth, the first rail road in Germany, opened, and the journey made in 15 minutes. The monumental stone has the inscription: "Germany's first iron rail road, with steam power, 1835."
1842. Thomas Hamilton, the author of Cyril Thornton, a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, &c., died at Pisa, in Italy.
1853. A statue inaugurated to marshal Ney at Paris, on the place where he was shot on this day of the month, in 1815.
DECEMBER 8.
1275. Meeting of Stationarii, or booksellers, at London. For a quarter of a century previous to this time, booksellers not unfrequently kept school in their porches. The portal at the north end of the cathedral in Rouen is still called Le Portail des Libraires, the porch of the booksellers.
1315. Battle of Morgarten, or Ægeri, in Switzerland; the Austrian army of 20,000 under the archduke Leopold, defeated by 1,600 mountaineers in the pass between the mountain and the lake.
1437. Sigismund, emperor of Germany, died. He volunteered his assistance to tranquilize the church, and proposed the famous council, which consisted of 14,000 ecclesiastics and 16,000 noblemen. His perfidy in allowing Huss and Jerome of Prague to be burnt, after giving them a passport of safety, armed against him the bravest of his subjects, and led to a civil discord and bloodshed of sixteen years' duration.
1493. Isabella, the first European town in America, founded by Columbus. All his men, provisions and utensils, were landed on a plain near a rock, on the island of Navidad, in the West Indies, and a fort erected. The town was named in honor of the Spanish queen, to whom the great navigator was much indebted.