1815. The bill for the construction of the Erie canal from the Hudson river to lake Erie, passed the house of assembly, 84 to 15.
1818. Thomas Hatchcock died in Richmond county, North Carolina, aged 125, leaving a son aged 93 and another 16, and a great progeny besides.
1827. Hugh Clapperton, a Scottish traveler, died. He was employed by the British to explore the interior of Africa, and died at Sackatoo, on his second journey thither.
1832. Shadrach Bond, first governor of Illinois, died at Kaskaskia.
1839. Robert Hillhouse, an English poet, died. He was a stocking-weaver of Nottingham, and had no advantages of education but such as were afforded by Sunday schools. His works "will insure his celebrity as a poet of no mean grade."
1850. Pope Pius IX returned to Rome.
1853. William R. King, vice-president of the United States, died. He was for many years a diplomat abroad, and his career furnished a remarkable instance of the eminent and deserved success of probity, fidelity, industry, gentlemanly spirit and bearing, and inflexible honor.
1855. Henry Thomas de la Beche, an eminent English geologist, died, aged 59. He was the author of many geological works, and director-general of the geological survey of the united kingdom, and was knighted in 1848, in recognition of his valued and long-continued services.
1856. Philadelphia visited by a tornado, 150 houses unroofed.