1534. John Boccold (of Leyden) a journeyman tailor, crowned king of Sion at Munster, in Germany, by the anabaptists. The German princes took the city by surprise on this day the year following, and deposed the king, and afterwards put him to death.
1577. Sebastian III of Portugal embarked at Lisbon against the Moors in Africa, with 1,000 sail.
1637. Nicholas Claude Fabri Peiresc, a distinguished French antiquary, died. He was a learned man, and highly esteemed by his cotemporaries.
1643. John Hampden, an English statesman, died. He was a leader of the parliamentary forces, and mortally wounded at the battle of Chalgrove field.
1675. King Philip's war began at Swanzey, in the Plymouth colony, not far from mount Hope. Having sent their wives and children to the Narragansetts for safety, a party of the Wampanoags advanced to Swanzey, where they menaced the people, and proceeded to rifle their houses, and even to kill the cattle. An Indian was shot, whereupon the party rushed forward and slew eight or nine of the inhabitants; thus opened the bloody scene, which for more than a year spread terror and devastation over the New England colonies, and shed a deluge of human blood. It was a
contest for extirpation, and ere it ended the flower of the English and the chivalry of the Indians were laid low.
1711. Queen Anne's fleet, sent to reduce Canada, arrived at Boston, New England.
1724. Great tumult in Glasgow, occasioned by a tax on malt. Preparations of malt liquor were at that time deemed essential articles of comfort.
1736. English act of parliament against witchcraft, passed in the reign of James I, repealed.
1741. A daily mail first instituted in London.