1024. Abdurrahman IV, sultan of Cordova, dethroned by a relative and put to death. He was a patron of science, which he cultivated with success, and a poet.
1306. John Comyn murdered by Robert Bruce in the convent of the minorite friars. They were rival nobles, who had recently settled their differences, and agreed upon a revolt from the dominion of England. Comyn had treacherously revealed the matter to Edward. Bruce hastened to accuse him of it, and after some altercation struck him with his dagger, and he was immediately despatched by Bruce's attendants.
1402. Walleran, count of St. Pol, issued against Henry IV, of England, his famous cartel of defiance.
1519. Hernando Cortez sailed from Cuba for the conquest of Mexico. His armament consisted of 11 ships, 508 soldiers and 109 mariners. This force was divided into 16 cavalry, 13 musketeers, 10 brass field pieces, 4 falconets, and 32 crossbows. This miniature army was destined to oppose more than 500,000 warriors before it reached the capital of the great Montezuma.
1539. John Stephen Duranti killed. He was the first president of the parliament of Toulouse; and made himself conspicuous by his efforts to preserve that city from the plague of 1538. He was killed by a mob.
1567. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, murdered, aged 21. The house in which he lay sick was blown up, it is supposed with the privity of his wife, Mary queen of Scots, by her favorite, the earl of Bothwell. Darnley had murdered Rizzio, the queen's musician, before her own eyes, whose blood was thus avenged. Mary perished on the scaffold, and Bothwell was taken by the Norwegians, and died insane after ten years' imprisonment.
1640. De Vries commenced a plantation about four miles above the fort at New Amsterdam, and complains that the director of the West India company had failed to send him people for his colony on Staten island, as had been agreed upon.
1658. Gerard Langbaine, an English
writer, died. He acquired literary celebrity by his edition of Longinus.
1676. Attack on Lancaster, Mass., by the Indians under Pocanoket. The village contained 60 families; most of the houses that were not garrisoned were burnt; and the house of the clergyman, although defended by a competent number of inhabitants, was fired by the Indians, the women and children carried away, and the men either killed on the spot or reserved for further misery. Mrs. Rowlandson and her children, the family of the clergyman, were afterwards redeemed. The town was saved from entire ruin by the appearance of a company of 40 men from Marlborough.