1852. Sacramento in California inundated; the city submerged by the breaking through of a levee.
DECEMBER 20.
69. Aulus Vitellius, emperor of Rome, assassinated. After sharing in the debaucheries of Tiberius, and administering to the vices of Caligula, Claudius and Nero, he was proclaimed by his troops in Germany, in opposition to Otho. Though defeated in three battles, he triumphed in the fourth. He disgraced his reign by every species of licentiousness.
107. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, torn in pieces by lions at Rome, by order of the emperor Trajan. His epistles are very interesting remains of ecclesiastical antiquity.
860. Ethelbald, who married his
mother-in-law, died, after having to the priests atoned for his offence by building and endowing many abbeys and monasteries.
912. Alphonso III (the Great), king of Asturias, in Spain, died. He wrote a chronicle of the Spanish monarchs, and a short time before his death obtained a memorable victory over the Moors.
1192. Richard of England seized in his disguise at Vienna.
1492. Columbus cast anchor in the bay of St. Thomas; the anniversary also of the interment of his venerable bones more than three centuries after (1795) at Cuba.
1494. Matteo Marie Bojardo, an Italian lyric poet, died.