1796. Demerara and its dependencies in Guiana, surrendered to the British.
1801. Murad Bey, the celebrated Mameluke chief, died of the plague, while descending the Nile to join the English. He was succeeded by Tambourji, so named from having been a drummer.
1809. Battle of Eckmuhl, in which Bonaparte, having routed one division of the Austrian army two days in succession, executed a variety of movements, considered as among the most admirable displays of his science, by which he brought the whole of his force upon the army of the archduke Charles, which he had concentrated at Eckmuhl. The battle is said to have been one of the most splendid which the art of war could display. The Austrian army, of upwards of 100,000 men, were dispossessed of all their positions, by the combined attack of the French, whose divisions appeared on the field, each in its due place and order, as regularly as the movements of the various pieces in the game of chess. The battle commenced at two in the afternoon and continued till nightfall. It resulted in the complete overthrow of the Austrians; all their wounded, a great part of their artillery, fifteen stands of colors, and 20,000 prisoners, remained in the power of the French to which their loss in the field may be added. Their retreat was also attended with corresponding loss.
1826. Missolonghi taken by the Turks. It had been besieged several months, and was reduced to a heap of ruins by continued bombardments. The heroic garrison forced a passage through the besiegers, leaving the sick, aged and wounded in a mill containing a quantity of powder. An old wounded soldier took his seat on the mine, and fired it as soon as the Turks entered.
1829. Lepanto surrendered by capitulation to the Greeks.
1839. Thomas Haynes Bayly, an English lyric poet, died. He is the author of about 30 plays, and many beautiful and popular songs.
1846. The Chilian ship Maria Helena arrived at Edgartown, Mass., from Valparaiso Dec. 7th; said to have been the first Chilian ship that ever visited the United States.
1850. The last publication of the bans
of marriage in Massachusetts. It was the case of a black man who declared his intention to marry a white woman.
1853. An insurrection attempted at Freiburg, in Switzerland, by the Jesuit party; but was soon suppressed, with some loss of life.