1765. Anne Claude de Caylus, a French writer, died. His Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, 7 vols. 4to, is valuable. He also discovered, from a passage of Pliny, the ancient mode of encausting painting, and of tinging marble.
1774. The first congress met at Philadelphia. There were 52 members present from eleven colonies. (Sept. 4?)
1778. British under Gen. Grey landed at Bedford or Dartmouth, and destroyed above 70 sail of shipping, besides small craft. They burnt the magazine, wharf, storehouses, vessels on the stocks, the dwelling houses and mills, and levied a contribution of all the public moneys, 300 oxen and 10,000 sheep.
1781. An indecisive engagement took place off the Chesapeake between the British fleet, admiral Graves, and the French fleet under de Grasse. While the two admirals were manœuvering, count de Barras with a French fleet of eight line of battle ships passed the British at night and got within the capes of Virginia; by this combination the French had a decided superiority, and the British took their departure.
1785. Lunardi made the first balloon ascent in Scotland. He ascended at Edinburgh, and traversed a distance of fifty miles over sea and land in one hour and a half.
1786. Jonas Hanway, an English merchant and philanthropist, died. He undertook a laborious and dangerous course of travels through Russia into Persia, with a view of opening trade. The city of London owes many useful improvements and institutions to his enterprise and benevolence.
1794. John Hely Hutchinson, an Irish lawyer and statesman, died. He was noted for his avidity after lucrative offices; of whom lord North remarked, that if England and Ireland were given him he would solicit the Isle of Man for a potato garden.
1800. The capitulation of the fortress of Valetta, at Malta, was signed, two years after it had been taken from the knights by the French. It was agreed that the French troops should march out with the honors of war as far as the sea shore, where they should ground their arms, and then be embarked for Marseilles as prisoners of war until exchanged, and Malta has remained in the hands of the British.
1808. Clement Cruttwell died; an
English divine and author, whose literary performances, for labor, extent and utility, have rarely been equaled.