1676. Alexei Michaelowitz, czar of Russia, died. He was father of Peter the Great; distinguished for his wars, his munificence, and his improvements in the state.
1680. A great comet, which had alarmed the inhabitants of New England since the 18th November, disappeared. It was also observed in Europe, and Henault says that it was the largest which had ever been seen, and struck terror into the minds of the people of France. It was by the observation of this comet that Newton ascertained the parabolic form of the trajectory of comets, and demonstrated their orbits. This discovery contributed to the removal of those terrors with which the phenomenon had always been attended, in all ages, and among all nations, who viewed it as the presage of some direful event.
1686. William Dugdale, an eminent English antiquary and historian, died.
1689. Isaac Vossius, a German scholar, died. He is the author of various learned works in German, and edited several Latin and Greek works. In 1670 he visited England, was admitted to the degree of LL. D., and presented to a canonry at Windsor by Charles II, who afterwards took occasion to say that he was a strange divine, for he believed every thing but the Bible.
1711. Richard Duke died. He was a poet of some credit in the last century, and by Dr. Johnson included among the classics.
1743. British sloop Squirrel captured the Spanish ship Pierre Joseph, with 195,000 pieces of eight on board and a valuable cargo of cochineal, indigo, &c.
1747. Thomas Chubb died. He was bred a glover, but when he arrived at the age of manhood, devoted great attention to the sciences and divinity, and gained great celebrity by a work on the latter subject.
1755. Charles de Secondat, Baron Montesquieu, an illustrious Frenchman, died. His Spirit of Laws has immortalized his name.
1763. Treaty of peace signed at Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain, by which the latter retained possession of Canada and Florida, besides many important islands in the West Indias, and along the coast, which had been recently captured by the British.
1773. James Forthon died at Grenada, one of the West India islands, aged 127.