MARCH 19.
720. B. C. The first eclipse of the moon on record (by Ptolemy) happened on this day.
478. B. C. The history of Herodotus terminates with the siege of Sestos.
235. Alexander Severus, emperor of Rome, murdered by his soldiers. He was
a Phœnician by birth, led an exemplary life, and governed ably both in peace and war.
717. Chilperic, king of France, surprised in his camp, in the forest of Arden, by the duke of Austrasia, afterwards Charles Martel.
1355. Pressing for seamen to man the English navy, commenced in the reign of Edward III.
1521. Insurrection and massacre in the island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean sea.
1584. Iwan IV, Vassilivitz, first czar of Muscovy, died. He was denominated by the Russians the terrible, and by foreigners the tyrant.
1621. The complaint against lord Bacon for corruption, drawn up by Sir Edward Coke and others, presented to the house of lords. The chancellor was sick, but addressed a letter to his peers, requesting them not to prejudge his case from "any number of petitions against a judge that makes two thousand decrees and orders in a year; but that he may answer them according to the rules of justice, severally and respectively."