1669. George Bate, an English physician, died. He had the talent and address to keep his situation as court physician to Charles I, Cromwell and Charles II. He wrote an account of the civil wars in Latin.
1684. The Synod of Edinburgh changed the year of confirmation for children from 8 to 16 years.
1689. Christina, queen of Sweden, died. She resigned the sceptre, 1654, became a catholic, and resided at Rome. She was a woman of great abilities and learning, and corresponded with the learned men of the day in different languages.
1689. The toleration act, so famous among dissenters and others in England, was passed.
1710. The 5 Mohawk chiefs, who were taken to England by Col. Schuyler, attended an audience of great state with the queen, and made a speech.
1739. Nicholas Saunderson, an English mathematician, died. He lost his sight from smallpox, at the age of one year; notwithstanding which he acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, pursued his studies with the assistance of friends, and was sent to Cambridge University, where he became acquainted with Newton, and was finally chosen professor of mathematics. His eminence in the science of certainties has rarely been equaled.
1747. Thomas Coxeter, an English antiquary, died. He was a faithful and industrious collector of old English literature, amassed materials for a biography of the English poets, and assisted Ames in his History of English Typography.
1751. John Banks, an English author, died. He was originally a weaver's apprentice.
1751. La Caille arrived at the cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of observing the southern hemisphere. He remained there three years, during which period he determined the exact position of ten thousand stars, and fixed the situation of the isles of France and Bourbon.
1765. While at dinner with his family at Redriffe, in England, a blacksmith was killed by a cannon ball projected from an old cannon thrown into a neighboring furnace for fusion.