1013. Abdullah, a Moorish historian, was killed at the taking of Cordova, his native city.
1421. An inundation of the rivers at Dort, in Holland, which swept away 100,000 persons, and destroyed 72 villages.
1434. The ice broke up at Paris, which had continued from the first of January. Snow fell in Holland forty days successively during the same winter.
1492. The Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, signed at Granada their grant to Columbus, constituting him hereditary admiral and viceroy over all the islands and continents he should discover during his expedition, with the benefit of a tithe of the profits arising from the merchandise found within his admiralty.
1537. The river Simeto, in Sicily, overflowed its banks, and destroyed 500 houses with the neighboring castles, and all the wood was uprooted by a storm.
1575. William Davenant, a learned German, died. He was the friend and confidant of the leaders of the reformation, as well as of every man of learning and consequence of the age. His works are numerous.
1610. Henry Hudson sailed on his last voyage.
1613. A "prodigious monster" born at Adlington, England, with two bodies joined to one back. It was described by a reverend gentleman, in a pamphlet entitled Strange News.
1670. Eric Daniel Achrelius, a Swedish philosopher and professor at Abo, died, aged 66.
1688. George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, died. He distinguished himself as a statesman, a poet and dramatic writer; but his character both in public and private life was extremely reprehensible.