1549. The liturgy of the English church established by parliament. All the divine offices were to be performed according to the new liturgy, and infringements were to be punished by forfeitures and imprisonments, and for the third offence imprisonment for life. Visitors were appointed to see that it was received throughout England. From this time we may date the era of the Puritans.
1655. Daniel Heinsius, a Dutch philologist, died. He made great progress as a student, under Scaliger, and was appointed to a professorship at Leyden. He was also successful as a Greek and Latin poet.
1559. Queen Elizabeth, crowned at Westminster, by the bishop of Carlisle, who was the only person that could be prevailed upon to perform the ceremony.
1672. John Cosin, bishop of Durham, died; a lover of literature and prodigal in his expenditures on book-binding. He ordered that all his books should be rubbed once a fortnight to prevent their moulding.
1693. An army of six or seven hundred French and Indians set out from Montreal to invade the Mohawk castles. (See [Feb. 6].)
1730. Gov. Montgomerie granted the city of New York a new charter. Although that city had been put under the government of a mayor in 1665, it was not regularly incorporated until 1686.
1773. At Duff house, the residence of the countess dowager of Fife, the first masquerade ever seen in Scotland was exhibited.
1777. Vermont declared itself a free and independent state. It had been settled as a part of New Hampshire, but was claimed as a part of New York, and so decided to be by the British crown. But by the dissolution of the bonds which had held America in subjection to the crown of Britain, they considered themselves free from New York, to which the most of them had never voluntarily submitted; and being, as they said, reduced to "a state of nature," they assumed the right to form such connections as were agreeable to themselves. Accordingly they formed a plan of government and a code of laws, and petitioned congress to receive them into the Union.
1778. Nootka sound and the Sandwich islands discovered by Captain Cook.
1780. First exportation of woolen goods from Ireland to a foreign market.