1520. Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator killed in one of the Phillipine islands, fighting for the king of the country, who had become his ally. Of all his fleet, only one ship and 18 men returned to Spain, from whence the expedition sailed.
1536. Conflagration of mount Ætna, which overwhelmed the church of St. Leon, and the physician Piazzi.
1576. Treaty between Holland and Zealand, being the two first provinces that united for their liberty. William of Nassau, prince of Orange, drew up the treaty, and may be considered as the founder of the United Provinces.
1595. Torquato Tasso, an illustrious Italian poet, died. He was excellent in every kind of composition, but the Jerusalem Delivered procured him the offer of the laurel crown. He expired on the day appointed for the coronation.
1636. James Hay, earl of Carlisle, died. He was the first Scotchman raised to the English peerage, and was employed by James I in various embassies.
1660. Henry Hammond, an English divine, died. He published a commentary on the New Testament; and began a paraphrase and commentary on the Old Testament, which he did not live to finish.
1671. The city of Oxford, England, nearly destroyed by a great fire.
1728. John Woodward, an English natural philosopher, died. He was bound apprentice to a linen draper, but was attracted from the business by the charms of science.
1732. The corpse of bishop Atterbury who died in France arrived in the Thames. Four pieces of French silk brocaded with silver were found with the body, which the custom house officers seized!
1734. John Conrad Dippel, a German chemist and physician, died. He was an eccentric character, who pretended to have discovered the philosophers' stone, and yet was confined for debt. In pursuing his alchemical researches, he discovered Prussian blue, and the animal oil which bears his name.