1857. A block of pure chrystalline ice weighing 25 lbs. was discovered in a meadow
near Cricklewood, England. On the day previous a destructive hail storm passed over the spot. Mezray, in his history of France mentions a block of ice that fell of the weight of 100 lbs., during a thunder and hail storm in the year 1510.
AUGUST 18.
332 B. C. Gaza, in Palestine, entered by Alexander the Great, and 10,000 of her inhabitants put to the sword. This was during the Isthmian games, and shortly after the fall of Tyre, which was taken in the month Hecatombæon.
328. Helena, empress of Rome, died, aged 80. She was the mother of Constantine, and distinguished for her zeal in the cause of the Christian religion.
852. Abdurrahman II, sultan of Cordova, died, aged 65. He was the patron of learning and scholars, though constantly engaged in war.
1187. Geoffrey, son to Henry II, killed in a tournament at Paris.
1348. A three-fold scourge, which during this year visited the continent of Europe, first appeared in England upon this day; earthquakes, deluges of rain, and a vast ephemeral pestilence, traveling the belt of Asia from Cathay to Delta; over Greece to Italy, beyond the Alps into France, reached London in November.
1510. Edmund Dudley, an English statesman, executed for treason; known as an instrument of Henry VII in the arbitrary acts of extortion practiced during the latter years of his reign.
1510. Richard Empson, another characteristic of the same stamp, perished at the same time.