1780. The Spanish fleet of 11 sail, under Langara, destroyed off St. Vincent by the British fleet of 19 sail, under Rodney. Langara was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner. One of the Spanish ships with 600 men on board was blown up, and all perished. The British lost 32 killed and 102 wounded.
1790. The bean-fed friars ejected from their convents by an augean labor of the French revolution.
1794. Edward Gibbon, the historian, died, aged 57. During his visit to Rome in 1764, he formed the plan of writing the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In 1774 he obtained a seat in parliament, and two years after appeared the first quarto volume of his history. A disorder which he had endured twenty three years terminated in a mortification.
1795. Retreat of the British from Utrecht, in Holland, upon which the inhabitants capitulated to the French.
1796. The first theatre at Botany bay opened by the convicts at Sydney cove.
1809. Battle of Corunna in Spain, between the French and English, and death of Sir John Moore, who fell mortally wounded by a cannon shot, at the moment of victory achieved by the troops under his command. His men buried him in his cloak, and the French, in testimony of his gallantry, erected a monument over his remains. He was unmarried and in his 47th year.
1812. The king of Sicily, on account of ill-health, abdicated the throne in favor of his son, until he should recover. It is remarkable that Great Britain, Spain, Portugal and Sweden were governed by regents or viceroys at the same time.
1813. Lewis Barney died at Champlain, New York, aged 105. He had 24 children by one wife.
1815. Henry Thornton, founder of the Sierra Leone company, and a writer on the credit of Great Britain, died.
1816. The bridge at the falls of the Schuylkill fell with the great body of snow upon it.