1574. Charles IX, of France, died, aged 25. It was during his reign that the fatal massacre of St. Bartholomews took place, which renders his name odious.
1577. Martin Frobisher, the English navigator, sailed on his second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage to India. He coasted Greenland and Labrador, and returned with 200 tons of glittering stones and sand, which he had mistaken for gold ore.
1640. Peter Paul Rubens, the celebrated Flemish painter, died. He was also a statesman, and a man of learning.
1654. Christina of Sweden abdicated the throne, on which occasion she caused a medal to be struck, with the motto, "Parnassus is worth more than a throne."
1658. Prince of Conde, at the head of 2000 cavalry, threw himself into Cambray, then besieged by marshal Turenne.
1663. Denis de Sallo, the inventor of literary journals, published the first number of the French Journal des Savans.
1676. Hatfield, Mass., burnt by the Indians. The town was attacked by about 600 of the enemy, while the men were all out in the fields at work except one who was very old. They burnt 12 houses and barns without the fortification, and drove away the cattle and sheep. The news of this affair having reached the neighboring town of Hadley, 25 resolute young men hastened to the scene of desolation, and charged the savages with such undaunted courage, that five or six of them fell at the first shot; and making their way through the thickest of the Indians, they threw themselves into the garrison, with the loss of five of their number, who fell as they were entering the town. The enemy, amazed at the resolution of this little band, and having lost 25 of their number, fled from the place immediately, with their booty.
1688. Pere Gerbillon, one of the French Jesuit Missionaries who accompanied Du Halde to China, set out on his first journey into Tartary. His travels are published at length in the great work of Du Halde. (See [Ap. 1, 96]; [May 24, 98]; [Oct. 13, 98].)
1718. Bernard Nieuwentyd, a Dutch writer on mathematics, died.
1744. Alexander Pope died: the celebrated English poet and epistolary writer.