1653. Claudius Salmasius, a French historian and critic, died. He was a man of most uncommon abilities and erudition, as his works, numerous and various, show.
1658. Oliver Cromwell died, on the anniversary of some of his most famous victories. The mighty conqueror, Death, snatched him in no ordinary manner, for Dan Æolus proclaimed it in tempest to all nations of Europe.
1660. James, duke of York, remarried to Ann Hyde; Clarendon, lord chancellor, pretending on account of the dignity of royalty, he would rather have seen her his concubine than his wife.
1662. William Lenthall, speaker of the parliament that levied war against Charles I, died.
1680. Paul Ragueneau, superior of the Jesuit missionaries in Canada, died at Paris, aged 75. He was a man of wonderful confidence in God, and of the most complete disengagement from temporal things.
1692. David Ancillon, a German divine, died; eminent for his learning, piety and eloquence. His library at Metz was a great curiosity to the learned.
1711. Elizabeth Sophia Cheron died; a French lady who obtained great celebrity by her talents for poetry, painting, the learned languages and music.
1715. The pretender proclaimed king James VIII by the earl of Mar at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.
1729. John Hardouin, a French Jesuit, died; who distinguished himself for his criticism and extensive erudition, as well as by the singularity of his opinions.
1733. At Carlton, Yorkshire, England, a vault, 8 feet by 5, was discovered 18 feet below the surface, in which lay a skeleton of a large body with a helmet in a niche over the head, on the wall some Saxon characters and the date 992 were discovered.