1601. Peter Airault died; a magistrate of Paris of great integrity and firmness, by which he acquired the title of the rock of the accused.
1637. Daniel Sennertus, a learned German physician, died. He was the son of a shoemaker, rose to great celebrity, and was one of the first to introduce the study of chemistry among his pupils.
1683. William Russel, duke of Bedford, executed. This was one of the arbitrary measures of the reign of Charles II. An attempt was afterwards made to satisfy the ends of justice in this affair by seeking out the instigators of the deed, and restoring his family to their privileges and estates.
1688. James Butler, duke of Ormond, died; a celebrated statesman and warrior in the reign of Charles II, to whose restoration he materially contributed.
1772. Peter Barral, a French ecclesiastic, died. He distinguished himself by the production of several useful works, and among them a historical dictionary.
1773. Pope Clement XIV signed the famous bull which pronounced the extinction of the society of Jesuits.
1788. Gaetano Filangieri died at Naples; one of the most celebrated political economists of the last century.
1789. M. Foulon and his son-in-law, Berthier, massacred at Paris; they are numbered as the 8th and 9th victims of the revolution.
1796. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, died. In the humble employment of a ploughman, he discovered a most extraordinary genius, which has given to his productions an enduring fame.
1797. Peter Thelluson, a Swiss resident in London, died. He accumulated an immense property, the bulk of which he left to be funded till it should amount to £140,000,000, when, if he should have no lineal descendants, it was to be applied to the sinking fund of Great Britain.