1797. Bank of England suspended specie payments. Twenty years after it resumed on one and two pound notes.
1806. Action between the British ship Hydra, and French brig La Furet, off Cadiz, in which the latter was captured.
1814. Battle of Orthes, in France, between the British under Wellington and the French.
1817. Two shocks of an earthquake felt at Kingston, Upper Canada.
1829. Battle of Tarqui between the Colombian army of 5000, and the Peruvian of 8000, in which the latter were defeated with considerable loss. Articles for the cessation of hostilities were signed on the field of battle, and mutual differences referred to the arbitration of the United States government.
1844. Nicholas Biddle, celebrated as the
president of the United States bank for a number of years, died near Philadelphia, aged 58. He graduated at Princeton at the early age of 15, and was a man of great ability, of rarely equaled scholarship, and of the most polished and courtly manners. On the ruin of the bank he retired into private life, where however the creditors of the bank did not allow him undisturbed repose.
1853. Paul Frederick Augustus, reigning duke of Oldenburgh, died, aged 70.
FEBRUARY 28.
509 B. C. Battle of the Œsuvian fields, in which the Tarquins were vanquished and expelled from Rome, with the loss of more than 11,000 citizens on the side of the victors.