1754. Washington attacked a French encampment at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela. The night was dark and rainy, and the enemy completely secure. His troops having surrounded the camp, fired and rushed upon the French, who immediately surrendered.
1760. Battle of Sillery, in Canada, between the British garrison at Quebec, 3000, under Gen. Murray, and the French under Levi, consisting of 10 battalions of regulars, 6000 Canadian militia, and a body of Indians. The British general finding himself in danger of being outflanked, retreated to his fortifications, with the loss of 1000 men. The French loss was still greater, and they reaped no essential advantage from the victory.
1772. The counts Struensee, and Brandt, the favorite of the king of Denmark, executed at Copenhagen. Their alleged crime was an intrigue with the queen of Denmark, princess Caroline Matilda, sister of George III, of England.
1779. Simon Barnard, a celebrated
aid-du-camp of Napoleon, and for some time chief of the engineer corps of the United States, was born at Dôle, in France.
1786. Gustavus, king of Sweden, read the eulogy of Creutz, the poet and statesman, who died a short time previous. Creutz signed with Franklin a treaty of amity between the United States and Sweden, 1783.
1788. Maryland, the 7th state in succession, adopted the constitution of the United States; votes 63 to 12.
1789. Mutiny on board the ship Bounty on her voyage from Otaheite, whither she had sailed to procure fruit trees to stock the West India islands. The vessel had on board 1015 plants of the bread fruit tree. Lieut. Bligh and 19 of the crew were compelled to go into an open boat; "they reached the island of Timor in June, after a perilous voyage of 1200 leagues."
1789. Thomas Hutchins, geographer-general of the United States, died. He was a native of New Jersey, and was in England at the commencement of the revolutionary war, where he refused some excellent offers, and was subsequently imprisoned and lost £12,000 on suspicion of holding correspondence with Franklin in Paris. He afterwards returned to America, served under Greene in South Carolina, and published several historical and geographical works, with charts and maps.
1793. Battle of Duren; the French defeated by the Austrians under Clairfait, with a loss of 2000, and their military chest, 12 cannon, and 13 ammunition wagons.