1739. George Lillo, an English dramatic writer, died. Though a jeweler by profession, and a man of business, he cultivated the muses, and acquired great celebrity.
1752. New style; eleven days blotted from the English calendar; this, the 3d, being accounted the 14th. The Julian computation, either from ignorance or negligence, supposing a complete solar revolution in the precise period of 365 days and 6 hours, made no provision for the deficiency of 11 minutes per annum, which, however, in the lapse of 18 centuries amounted to a difference of 11 days.
1774. Antony de Ferriol, count Pont de Vesle, died; a French comic writer.
1777. British under Gen. Howe marched upon Philadelphia, and the Americans retreated across the Brandywine.
1782. Sixth action between the British, admiral Hughes, 12 ships and a 50 gun ship, and the French admiral Suffrein, 12 ships and three 50 gun ships, off Trincomalee. The action was bloody; the French on re-entering the harbor in the evening, lost a 74 gun ship.
1783. Definitive articles of peace signed at Paris, between England, France, Spain and America.
1791. New French constitution presented to Louis XVI by the national assembly.
1796. Battle of Wurzburg; the French under Jourdan defeated by the Austrians under the archduke Charles.
1801. British took possession of Alexandria, Egypt. They found there 312 cannon. The garrison consisted of nearly 12,000, who had subsisted a long time on horseflesh.
1803. Joseph Ritson, an English writer, died. Though a man of learning, he adopted a most singular and capricious form of orthography.