1262. Hugo de St. Caro, a Dominican, died. He deserves to be placed in the first rank of sacred critics and patrons of literature. The Dominicans are indebted to him for their celebrated Correctorium Bibliorium, and the first concordance of the Bible, that is of the Latin Vulgate; a comment on the old and new testament, and for the division of the Bible into chapters. He undertook to procure a union of the Greek and Roman churches.
1369. Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, killed. He manifested the most wanton inhumanity in his private and public life, by which he became odious to the people, and was killed by his brother.
1471. Edward IV of England returned from exile, and landed at Ravenspur; in his bonnet he wore an ostrich feather as prince of Wales; and his Fleming followers carried hand-guns, which is the first account of them in England.
1519. Fernando Cortez, having taken possession of the Indian town of Tabasco on the day of his landing in the country of Mexico, now marched out with his troops to a plain, where he was attacked by an immense body of Indians, who wounded above seventy of his soldiers at the first discharge of their weapons. The Spanish artillery did great execution, but when the cavalry came to the charge, the Indians, imagining the horse and rider to be one, were extremely terrified, and fled to the woods and marshes, leaving the field to the Spaniards.
1640. Manasses de Pas died; a French general, distinguished for his valor. His abilities were equally displayed in the cabinet, as ambassador to the courts of Sweden and Germany. He died of the wounds he received at the siege of Thionville.
1644. Roger Williams having been sent to England as agent for Rhode Island and Providence, obtained of the earl of Warwick a patent for the incorporation of the towns of Providence, Newport and Portsmouth, with the power of governing themselves, but subject to the laws of England.
1660. William Ledra, a quaker, hanged by the puritans of Massachusetts, on conviction of having returned from banishment, to which he had been condemned for his faith.
1676. Attack on Northampton, Mass., by a body of Narraganset Indians, of Philip's party. The town had been fortified by palisades, set up a little while before for their better security against the savages. The Indians broke through these in three places, and succeeded in killing six persons and firing a few dwellings; but a company of soldiers being at that time quartered in the town, the enemy were speedily repulsed with the loss of many of their lives.
1710. Michael Begon, a French avocat, died. He also distinguished himself in the marines, and as governor of the French West India islands.
1712. Mary, countess of Falconberg, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, died. She possessed great beauty, spirit and activity; and on the deposition of her brother, exerted herself for the restoration of Charles II.