1854. The sultan of Turkey gave a grand banquet in honor of Napoleon.
1855. Jane Davy, widow of sir Humphrey Davy, died in London; conspicuous in literary circles for her accomplishments, unwearied conversation and physical activity.
MAY 9.
1502. Columbus sailed from Cadiz, with four vessels and 140 men and boys, in search of a passage to the South sea, being his fourth voyage across the Atlantic. It was a disastrous expedition for the admiral, against whom the elements seem to have joined his countrymen, to complete the ruin of his fortunes.
1657. William Bradford, second governor of Plymouth colony, died. He removed to America with the first settlers of the colony, and was their governor thirty years. He wrote a history of the colony from 1602 to 1646, which was deposited in the library of the old south church in Boston, where it fell a sacrifice to the fury of the British, 1775.
1657. A secret treaty signed at Paris between Louis XIV and Cromwell, for "the ruin and destruction of the proud and tyrannical monarchy of Spain."
1760. Nicholas Lewis Zinzendorf, a German count, died; founder of the sect of Moravians, or Hernhutters.
1767. Cassini observed, by the position of certain spots, the revolution of the planet Venus on its axis.
1768. Bonnell Thornton died; an English poet, essayist and miscellaneous writer, and translator of Plautus.
1776. Ellen Ellis at Beumaris in Anglesey gave birth to a child in her 72d year.