JULY 8.
17. The isle of Thia, one of the scattered cluster called the Sporades, in the Grecian archipelago, rose brightly from the sea.
1117. Adam de St. Victoire, a French ecclesiastic and writer, died.
1174. Henry II of England performed severe penance before the shrine of Thomas a Becket in the cathedral of Canterbury.
1497. The Indian expedition of Emanuel, king of Portugal, sailed from the Tagus. It consisted of three vessels, under Vasco de Gama.
1520. The retreating and almost annihilated army of Cortez entered the dominions of their faithful allies, the Tlascalans. Here the Spaniards rested to repair their fortunes, and the Mexicans meanwhile employed themselves in restoring their devastated capital.
1524. James Verrazzanus, the Florentine discoverer, dated his letter to the king
of France from Dieppe, giving an account of his voyage along the coast of the United States, in which he is supposed to have visited the outer harbor of New York.
1533. Ludovico Ariosto, the Italian poet, is by some authorities said to have died on this day. (See [June 6].)
1550. The king of Denmark entered into a written contract to bind the Danish Bible in whole leather with clasps, for two marks Danish a copy and lodging; and to complete 2,000 copies in a year and a day. It was a middle sized folio, of 1,090 pages and sold for three rix dollars a copy.