1609. Henry Hudson departed from the Texel on his famous voyage of discovery, the object of which was to find a northern passage to India. Meeting with obstructions he determined to attempt a north-west passage; and this also being attended with disasters, he shaped his course south along the American continent, and discovered the noble river which bears his name, and gave him immortality.
1645. William Burton, an English antiquary, died. He published a history of the county of Leicestershire, which is valuable.
1655. David Blondel, a French protestant minister, died. He had the misfortune to lose his sight by close application to study, but even under that calamity he dictated two folio volumes on the genealogy of the kings of France. He was a man of great learning.
1686. Arthur Annesley, earl of Anglesey, died. He was a statesman of great utility, sagacity and learning, under Charles I.
1695. Richard Busby, a celebrated English schoolmaster, died. He was educated by the bounty of the parish, and became head master of Westminster school, which place he held during half a century. He educated most of the eminent men who flourished about the period of his death. They regarded him as a father, though a severe one.
1707. William van der Velde (the younger), a Dutch painter, died. He was an admirable artist, distinguished for his excellence in marine subjects, painted in black and white, on a ground so prepared on canvas, as to give it the appearance of paper. It is said he has had no equal in his line.
1717. James Perizonius, a German professor at Leyden, died. He published various works in Latin, on history, classical literature and antiquities; and was a man of extensive erudition, great application and sound judgment.
1739. The workmen at Stocks market, England, disinterred a grave stone with antique letters, supposed to have been buried 297 years.
1743. William Melmoth, (the elder,) a learned English lawyer, died. He is better known by a treatise on religious life, of which immense editions have been published.
1751. Frederick, king of Sweden and landgrave of Hesse Cassel, died.