1842. Alexander Croke, quite a voluminous writer on law, politics, &c., died at Studley priory, England, aged 85.
1842. Francis Wrangham, distinguished as a poet and antiquary, died at Chester, England.
1851. Basil Montagu, an English author, died, aged 81. He edited the last and best edition of Bacon's Works, and was one of the earliest, most prominent and most zealous advocates of a mitigated penal code in England.
1853. The mammoth clipper Great Republic was burnt at her wharf in New York, together with several other vessels and five large flour warehouses.
1854. Thomas Wilson Dorr, the cause of what was called the Dorr war in Rhode Island, died at Providence, aged 49.
DECEMBER 28.
1065. St. Peter's church at Westminster dedicated by Edward the confessor.
1278. Injunction of the primate of England to the nunnery at Godstow, that public prayers on this day, Childermas, should not any more be said by little girls.
1377. Wickliff divulged his opinion upon the pope's mandate.
1499. Earl of Warwick, the last of the male line of the Plantagenets, beheaded on Tower hill.