1771. Birthday of Mungo Park, a celebrated Scottish adventurer. He twice attempted the discovery of the course and outlet of the Niger, so long a source of conjecture with geographers, in the second of which he lost his life in the 35th year of his age.
1779. Indian village of Canandaigua burnt.
1781. Count d'Estaing returned with his fleet to the Chesapeake, and captured two British frigates of 32 guns each.
1782. The firing on Gibraltar from the isthmus continued by the Spaniards, at the rate of 6,500 cannon shot, and 1,080 shells in every 24 hours.
1785. Treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Prussia.
1791. A great insurrection among the negroes in St. Domingo, attributed to the new opinions of liberty and equality, called in Paris L'Ami des Noirs.
1797. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin died; a lady of very superior literary accomplishments, who distinguished herself by many able productions, and the peculiarity of her views.
1802. A lunar rainbow observed at Mattock, in Derbyshire, England.
1806. John Christopher Adelung, a German professor at Erfurt, died; author of a grammatical and critical dictionary of the German language, in 5 vols. quarto. He was never married, and it was said of him that his writing desk was his wife, and the 70 volumes which he wrote were his children. His wine cellar, which was unique, he called his bibliotheca selectissima.
1809. Augustus Louis von Schloetzer, a German historian, died. He wrote a History of Lithuania, &c.