1834. The first reformed British parliament dissolved by royal proclamation.
1836. The plague continued to rage at Constantinople; having carried off during the summer and autumn no less than 100,000 citizens.
1837. An attack made by upwards of 100 Canadian loyalists upon the American steamboat Caroline, lying in the Niagara, at Schlosser, and of 34 Americans on board 22 lost their lives. The boat was towed into the current, with part of the men on board, and precipitated down the falls.
1853. John Avery Parker, a distinguished merchant and a millionaire, died in New Bedford, Mass.
1853. The ship Staffordshire, captain Richardson, from Liverpool to Boston, struck on a rock south of Seal island, and sunk, carrying down 177 of the passengers and crew.
DECEMBER 31.
71 B. C. Pompey and Crassus triumph at Rome. The former had closed the ten years' war in Lusitania, and Crassus the revolt of Spartacus at home. Marcus Lucullus triumphed the same year, bringing with him the Thracian colossus of Apollo.
192. Lucius Aurelius Commodus, a dissipated emperor of Rome, strangled, and Pertinax elected. It was in the reign of this emperor, A. D. 190, that the Capitoline library at Rome was destroyed.
406. The Huns, 100,000 strong, entered Gaul, and laid desolate her seventeen luxurious provinces with havoc and flame,