1835. John Sinclair, an eminent British Statesman, died, aged 82. He was also a very voluminous author, and was distinguished for his patriotism and philanthropy. During a public life of upwards of fifty years, there is scarcely any topic in
the whole range of political, statistical or medical science, to which he did not turn his inquiring mind.
1840. Frank Hall Standish, an English author, died at Cadiz, aged 42. He wrote biography, travels, sketches and poems.
1845. The battle of Punjaub, between the English forces and the Sikh army, was fought, which issued in the defeat of the Sikhs, and the annexation of a large portion of their territory to that of the English.
1848. The Asiatic cholera broke out with great violence among the United States troops at port Lavaca, Texas.
DECEMBER 22.
640. Alexandria taken from the Greeks, by the Saracens, under Amri, after a siege of 14 months. "I have taken," he addressed the caliph Omar, "the great city of the west. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with observing that it contains 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theatres, or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews." It is well known that the second Alexandrian library, established by Cleopatra, was then destroyed, to feed the baths. The collection consisted of 300,000 volumes, and those 200,000 rolls, brought by Mark Antony from Pergamus, with the accumulation of seven centuries.
937. A severe frost which lasted 120 days, began in England.
1332. Found in the library of St. Mary, at Florence, the whole of the New Testament in silk; at the end of it is this inscription in Greek: "By the hand of the Sinner, and most unworthy, Mark, in the year of the world 7840."
1483. William d'Estouteville, a Norman cardinal, died; who reformed the university of Paris.