431 B. C. The dictator Tubertus Posthumus gained a victory over the Æqui and Volsci, inconsiderable but noxious enemies of the commonwealth.
1081. Robert Guiscard opened the famous siege of Durazzo, now in European Turkey, on the gulf of Venice.
1272. An attempt made to assassinate Edward I of England in his tent at Acre, by a messenger of the emir of Joppa. He received the blow on his arm, grappled with the assassin, and throwing him on the ground despatched him with his own dagger. The life of the prince was saved by his wife, who sucked the poison from the wound.
1458. Alfonso V, of Arragon (the magnanimous), died. He made himself master of Naples and Sicily; aside from his exploits as a warrior, he was a learned man and the patron of learning, and the father of his people.
1614. William Bathe, an Irish Jesuit, died. He was rector of an Irish school at Salamanca, and a writer on music and divinity.
1639. The king and his Scottish subjects met at Dunse, in Scotland, and agreed that matters ecclesiastical should be decided by an assembly, civil matters by parliament.
1658. Dunkirk surrendered to the French, and by them put into the hands of the English.
1673. Father Marquette, and Joliet a citizen of Quebec, employed by M. Talon for the discovery of the Mississippi, entered that noble river. They descended to within three days' journey of the gulf of Mexico.
1685. The unfortunate duke of Argyle taken in a morass.
1696. John Sobieski, king of Poland, died. He distinguished himself on many occasions in the Polish wars but the greatest of his exploits was the raising of the siege of Vienna, by which Europe was saved from the calamities consequent upon an irruption of the Turks.