1526. Rome taken by the partisans of cardinal Calonna, when the palace of the Vatican, the church of St. Peter, and the pope's ministers and servants were plundered.
1560. Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden, died. He recovered the kingdom from the Danish yoke, and established the protestant religion in his country.
1564. The earl of Leicester was ennobled, on which occasion it is said coaches were first brought to London.
1604. The act of king James against witches went into operation.
1622. Conrad Vorstius died; a learned German protestant divine and polemical writer, who succeeded Arminius in the divinity chair at Leyden.
1720. The great South sea bubble, a scheme for paying off the national debt of England, burst and involved an incredible number of people in utter ruin. The capital of the company was about $168,000,000.
1759. Volcano of Jorullo, in Mexico, by which a mountain was thrown up in a single night to the height of 1224 feet in the midst of a large plain. The volcano is surrounded by numerous conical hills, from which smoke is continually issuing.
1760. The astronomer Maskelyne was sent by the English government to St. Helena, and Mr. Mason to Bencoolen, to observe the transit of Venus on the 6th June, 1761. Three astronomers were sent from France for a like purpose.
1764. Battle between the Irish White boys and English troops near Kilkenny. Several killed on both sides.
1772. John Benjamin Michaelis, one of the minor German poets, died in his 25th year.