1684. Dublin castle in Ireland burned.
1710. Thos. Betterton, the actor, died. He was esteemed the greatest master of tragic action in his time.
1710. Edward Codrington died at Barbadoes. He was a native of the West Indies, and distinguished himself by his learning, and by his courage in defence of the British islands against the French.
1712. Richard Simon, a French critic and historian, died. His works are numerous, and evince extensive learning and strong judgment.
1766. Tiberius Hemsterhuys, a Dutch critic, died. He was appointed professor of mathematics and philosophy at Amsterdam at the early age of 19, and is the author of several learned works.
1776. Charles Peter Colardeau, a French poet, died. He translated a part of Pope and Young with great spirit and elegance, and also wrote for the stage.
1780. Robert Watson, a Scottish historian, died; author of Philip III of Spain.
1785. First paper issued in Hudson, Columbia county, New York.
1786. The celebrated catacombs of Paris consecrated, with great solemnity. They lie under a part of the city which was undermined some centuries ago, to furnish stone for the ancient edifices of Paris, and at length became closed up. This cemetery had been used more than a thousand years by twenty parishes, and it is estimated that more than three millions of people had been inhumed within its inclosures. In process of time, as the city extended, palaces and churches were built over the subterranean caverns, and were in imminent danger of sinking into the pit below, before it was again discovered. The mighty city of Paris had until now but one burial place, where a pit was dug, and the bodies laid side by side, without any earth being put over them, till the first tier was full; then a thin layer of earth covered them, and another tier of dead came on; thus by layer upon layer, and dead upon dead, the hole was filled up. These pits were emptied every thirty or forty years to receive new tenants. The last grave digger, Francis Pontraci, had by his own register, in less than thirty years, inhumed more than 90,000 bodies in that ground. The great increase of burials rendered the cemetery still more inconvenient, and it was at last happily thought of converting the quarries under the city into a receptacle for the dead.
1788. The first settlement in Ohio began, at Marietta, by 47 persons from New England.