1100. William II (Rufus), king of England, killed by an arrow. He possessed vigor, decision and policy, and acquired great wealth, by which he was enabled to purchase two French provinces. He founded Westminster hall.
1553. The peace of religion signed at Passau, on the Danube, between the confederates under Maurice of Saxony and the emperor Charles V, which established the protestant church in Germany.
1563. That great scourge, the plague, began in London.
1651. Cromwell, after a week's siege, erected the colors of the commonwealth on the walls of Perth.
1675. Brookfield destroyed by the Indians. This town was situated in the country of the Nipnets, whom Philip finally succeeded in engaging to himself in his plan of a general extermination of the English colonies. The inhabitants being alarmed had scarcely time to flee to the principal house in the village, before the savages came pouring in, and fired every other house. The whole number of people thus collected together was about seventy. They withstood the assaults of the Indians two days, who kept up the attack night and day, and endeavored to fire the house by means of poles with firebrands and rags dipped in brimstone tied to their ends. They also filled a cart with hemp and flax, and other combustibles, and having set it on fire thrust it backward with poles spliced together to a great length. A storm of rain defeated this last scheme; and several companies of soldiers came to the relief of the besieged so unexpectedly that the Indians, although they had surrounded the town to cut off assistance, were disheartened and fled.
1676. King Philip, the Wampanoag, surprised in his quarters by a party of the colonists under captain Church; 150 of his men were killed, his wife and sons were taken prisoners, and he narrowly escaped with his life.
1684. A treaty of peace concluded at Albany, between the colonists and the Five Nations, who, since the peace of 1761, had extended their arms southward, and conquered the country from the Mississippi to the borders of the plantations; involving Virginia and Maryland in the calamities of their Indian allies, whom they were unable to protect.
1689. Innocent XI died. He has been called the protestant pope.
1704. Battle of Blenheim, in Bavaria; the English and Austrians under the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene, obtained a famous victory over the French and Bavarians, who lost 12,000 killed and drowned, and 13,000 prisoners, including marshal Tallard. (13th by some authorities.)
1713. Mensen Alting, a Dutch writer, died; author of an excellent description of the Low Countries.