1854. Henrietta Sontag, one of first lyric artists of the day, died at Mexico, aged about 50.
1855. The allies made a combined attack upon the Malakoff and Redan towers, at Sebastopol, without success, and with a loss of 56 officers killed, 146 wounded and 17 prisoners; and 1,694 men killed or missing, and 2,690 wounded.
JUNE 19.
325. The first council of Nice began and continued to 25th August; present 318 bishops.
1215. John, king of England, signed the famous magna charta, and the charter of the forests, in a meadow at Runnimede between Staines and Windsor. (See [29th].)
1312. Piers Gaveston, the favorite of Edward II, executed. In his elevation he was proud, overbearing and cruel, and the barons rose up against him, and accomplished his destruction.
1566. James VI of Scotland and I of England, was born in a small room in Edinburgh castle.
1579. Maestricht, in Holland, taken by the Spaniards under the duke of Parma, after a siege of four months, during which about 8000 persons perished miserably. It was given up to pillage.
1619. The first assembly of Virginia met at Jamestown. The settlements had now become so numerous that 11 corporations appeared by their representatives to exercise the noblest function of freemen, the power of legislation.
1690. Ezekiel Hopkins, a learned English prelate died, aged 57.