1612. Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, died; an English statesman, the ablest minister of his time.
1651. Louis XIV of France purchased of the West-India company, for the benefit of the knights of Malta, the islands of St. Christopher, St. Bartholomew, St. Martin and San Cruz, for the sum of 120,000 livres turnois. (See [August 10, 1665].)
1663. South Carolina erected into a separate province. First permanent settlement began in 1669; original charter included North Carolina and Georgia.
1686. An eruption of mount Ætna, which extended its ravages four leagues around, and buried several persons alive.
1689. Passage of the well known toleration act of England, which so greatly relieved the dissenters.
1692. Four days' action off La Hogue; the remainder of the French ships, seven in number, and a great many transports and ammunition ships burnt.
1698. Pere Gerbillon, a Jesuit missionary, set out on his eighth and last journey to Tartary, in the train of the Chinese grandees, sent by the emperor to hold an assembly of the Kalka Tartars, who had been several years in rebellion, and to regulate the affairs of the country. (See [April 1], [Oct. 13].)
1715. William Read died; originally a cobbler, became a mountebank, and practiced medicine by the light of nature! Queen Anne and George I honored him with the care of their eyes! He could neither write nor read, but such was the success of his practice, that he rode in his own chariot, and "dispensed good punch from golden bowls."
1775. John Hancock elected president of congress; he succeeded Peyton Randolph in that office.
1777. Colonel Meigs made a successful attack on the British stores at Sag harbor, destroyed 12 British brigs and schooners, and great quantities of stores, and brought away 90 British prisoners, without sustaining any loss.