1818. Caspar Wistar died, a distinguished physician of Philadelphia. He was of German parentage, and a member of the society of Friends; became eminent as an anatomist, and corresponded with Cuvier and other eminent naturalists of Europe. He held scientific meetings at his own house, and was an active contributer to knowledge of all kinds. He died of a slow fever, caught by attending a poor family in a close apartment.
1822. John Julius Angerstein died, celebrated as the founder of the British national gallery, which was purchased by the government after his death for £40,000, (Cyclopedia Americana says £60,000) and was first exhibited in May, 1824. He was born at St. Petersburg, 1735.
1830. Great fire at Pera, Constantinople, extinguished by the exertions of the crew of an English ship.
1834. Great earthquake in South-America; the cities of Popayan and Pasto almost entirely destroyed, and many lives lost.
1835. Andrew Wallace died at New York, aged 105. He emigrated from Scotland in 1752, enlisted in the American army in 1776, and continued in it till 1813, when he was honorably discharged, on account of his disability, having suffered a stroke of paralysis.
1840. John Frederick Blumenbach died at Göttingen, aged 88. He was long a distinguished professor at the university, and a very eminent naturalist. His collection of skulls was said to be the richest in the world. The 50th year of his professorship was celebrated in 1826.
1849. John C. Calhoun's draft of an address to the people of the United States adopted in preference to Berrien's, and the Southern convention adjourned sine die.
1854. Patrick O'Donahoe died at Brooklyn, N. Y.; one of the Irish exiles who escaped from Van Diemen's Land.
JANUARY 23.
1401. Tamerlane introduced his troops into the city of Damascus, in violation of a truce; and after levying an enormous contribution in gold, massacred the inhabitants, and reduced the city to ashes, in revenge of the murder of the grandson of Mahomet, seven centuries before, by the Syrians.