1848. The Roman chambers were dissolved and a constituent assembly convened.
1849. Great crevasse in the Mississippi banks at Bonnet Carré, about forty miles above New Orleans.
1850. The British forces had an engagement with the Caffres, in South Africa, were defeated with considerable loss, and obliged to retreat to their fort.
1852. Robert Forrest, an eminent Scottish sculptor, died, aged 63. He was originally a stone mason, in the quarries of Clydesdale; but the products of his chisel are seen in the most conspicuous points of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
1855. The French imperial guard made a triumphal entry into Paris on its return from the Crimea.
DECEMBER 30.
944 B. C. The winter solstice fell upon this day, according to the marble, by the table of Petavius; which places the period of Homer thirty-seven years later.
1535. The society of the Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish monk, who entered into an agreement with five of his fellow students to undertake the conversion of unbelievers and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. From this small beginning it became a powerful society under the energy and shrewd policy of its leaders, and was raised to a degree of historical importance unparalleled in its kind.
1567. Bonhill field, the ancient burial place of the dissenters, surveyed, "containing 23 acres, 1 rod and 6 poles; butting upon Chiswell street on the south, and on the north upon the highway that leadeth from Wenlock's barn to the well called St. Agnes the Cleere." It was also the common place of interment for the victims of the great plague in 1665. Bunyan, Watts, Owen, De Foe, George Fox, are among the distinguished men who rest there.
1568. The learned Roger Ascham, died; sometime tutor to queen Elizabeth, and afterwards her Latin secretary.