On this day in history: Treaty of Paris signed, 1763

In 1756, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria formed a new alliance with Russia and France in order to recover territories lost to Prussia during the War of Austrian Succession, particularly Silesia. Meanwhile, the British no longer felt that the Austrians could contain French power in Europe. So rather than remain allied with the Austrians they signed a pact with King Frederick II of Prussia in return for his protection of Hanover - the ancestral home of the British royal dynasty - from French aggression.

Hostilities began when Frederick invaded Saxony, which was allied with the Austrians. The Austrians and their allies - France, Russia, Sardinia, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire - declared war on Prussia, their German allies and Great Britain. While the Prussian army, which was the most formidable in Europe at that time, fought the Austrian alliance on land, the powerful British navy engaged the allies at sea.

To check British naval power in the Mediterranean, the French captured the British owned island of Minorca. War soon spread around the globe as British and French colonists fought in Africa, Asia and particularly in North America where they had been skirmishing for years. The deployment of British land forces to their colonies resulted in them making substantial gains at the expense of the French expanding their empire around the world.

In Europe, Portugal entered the fray on the side of the British and Prussians, and Spain joined the Austrian alliance. A series of Prussian defeats brought Frederick to the brink of disaster, especially when the British threatened to withdraw their financial aid. Fortunately for him, in 1762 the Russian Empress Elizabeth died. Her successor, Peter III , who was more friendly to the Prussians immediately withdrew his troops from the war and helped negotiate a peace between Frederick and the Swedes. Having lost an important ally and facing a reverse of fortunes on the battlefield, the Austrians had little choice but to negotiate a peace.

War weariness in Britain contributed to King George III's removal of the Duke of Newcastle's government and the resultant peace negotiations with France. On 10th February 1763, representatives of France, Great Britain, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the conflict that is known as the Seven Years War in Europe, and the French and Indian War in America. The Treaty required a complex exchange of territories between the powers. The French had the choice of keeping either New France (Canada) or Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. They chose to keep the latter as a supply of sugar, but they also had to return Minorca to the British. The British also gained Florida from the Spanish, who received New Orleans and the western part of Louisiana from the French.

The text of the "Treaty of Paris (1763)" is available on the Yale Law School's Avalon Project web site.

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On this day in history: New South Wales founded, 1788

In August 1770 the English mariner and explorer James Cook (then a lieutenant) took possession of the eastern coast of Australia in the name of King George III, naming it New South Wales. Apart from a flag planted by Cook on Possession Island in the Torres Straight there was little evidence of the British claim over eastern Australia until the arrival of the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip. The Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, had charged Phillip with the governorship of a new penal colony to be established at Botany Bay. The fleet of eleven ships set sail in May 1787 carrying 772 convicts (both men and women), most of whom were petty thieves from London, and a small contingent of marines and naval officers.

Reaching Botany Bay in January 1788, Philip found it to be inadequate for his purposes and decided to land the troops and convicts at Sydney Cove, which he named after the Home Secretary, on the southern shore of Port Jackson. On 7th February 1788 Philip assumed the title of Governor of New South Wales formally founding the first British settlement in Australia. Eight days later he established the first colony at Port Jackson and soon after sent a small detachment of men to create a second colony at Norfolk Island both as an alternative food source and to prevent the French from taking possession of it.

Life in the colonies was harsh and chaotic at first. The marines were often nearly as ill-disciplined as the convicts and Philip soon began appointing some convicts as overseers who forced the others to work. The Governor also established friendly relations with the local indigenous population, the Cadigal, who were nevertheless ravaged by diseases the British had brought.

Within a couple of years Philip managed to create a stable settlement with a population of around two thousand. One convict called James Ruse asked for land to establish a farm. When Ruse made a success of an allotment Philip granted him ownership of thirty acres of land inspiring other convicts to follow suit.

Largely forgotten by Britain, Philip continued to administer the colony until ill-health forced him to request permission to return home. He received permission to do so and set sail in December 1792. He left behind him a successful settlement of over four-thousand people.

Project Gutenberg hosts electronic copies of Arthur Phillip's book The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789).

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On this day in history: London Corresponding Society founded, 1792

The parliamentary constituencies of eighteenth century Britain had a variety of ways of electing their Members of Parliament. The Westminster constituency in London was of the 'Scot and Lot' type where those adult males paying a form of local property tax could vote for the constituency's two MPs. In the city of Bath only the twenty or so members of the Corporation could vote for the city's two MPs. Meanwhile, some northern towns had no representation at all.

In the latter half of the century a number of people called for reform of the electoral system to make it more uniform and more representative, but all these attempts failed. On 25th January 1792 a shoemaker called Thomas Hardy held a meeting at The Bell tavern on Exeter Street, near the Strand, where he and a group of eight other men formed the London Corresponding Society (LCS). Their aim was parliamentary reform, especially the extension of the franchise to include all men.

In spite of its humble beginnings the LCS quickly grew and by May that year the Society had nine divisions, each with at least thirty members paying the penny a week subscription. The LCS leadership formed fraternal bonds with other working-men's societies with whom they shared common aims, including those in Sheffield and Norwich. They also cultivated links with predominantly middle-class reformers such as the Society for Constitutional Information.

As the French Revolution became increasingly radical and following the declaration of war by the French against Britain in 1793 many Britons became fearful of revolution spreading across the Channel. The LCS became the target of government investigation and attacks from loyalist societies and 'Church and King' mobs. In May 1794 the authorities arrested the leaders of the LCS and other reform organisations. Later that year, Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall stood trial on charges of treason, but the jury acquitted them through lack of evidence.

Official repression of working class reform movements did not stop there. That same year the government suspended Habeas Corpus, enabling detention without trial. Five years later in 1799 Parliament passed the Corresponding Societies Act, making the LCS an illegal organisation, effectively bringing it to an end. Nevertheless, calls for reform of parliament continued in the eighteenth century culminating in the Chartist movement and the Great Reform Act of 1832, which Hardy lived just long enough to witness as he died later that same year.

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On this day in history: Principality of Liechtenstein created, 1719

The Princely family of Liechtenstein took their name from a castle in Austria that they owned in the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries (the name means "bright stone"). This wealthy dynasty acquired lands across the Holy Roman Empire, but they only held these territories as fiefdoms
under superior feudal nobles, to whom they often acted as close advisers. The Third Prince, Hans-Adam I, occasionally worked for the Imperial Court as a financial advisor when he wasn't acquiring a substantial fortune for himself.

Hans-Adam used his fortune to fulfil a dynastic ambition: to hold lands directly under the Imperial throne and thus gain the power associated with a seat in the Imperial diet, called the Reichstag. He purchased the domain of Schellenberg in 1699 and the county of Vaduz thirteen years later just before he died. On 23rd January 1719 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV decreed that the two lands were united as a Fürstentum ("principality") with the name Liechtenstein in honour of the Fifth Prince Anton-Florian, who had served the Emperor as Chief Intendant and Prime Minister when he was Archduke of Austria.

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On this day in history: Louis XVI executed, 1793

The position of King Louis XVI and his family became increasingly tenuous following his attempt to escape revolutionary France in June 1791. The authorities arrested them at Varennes-en-Argonne, returned them to Paris, and placed them under house arrest at the Tuileries Palace. The royal houses of Europe became increasingly concerned about the fate of Louis and as a result the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II - the Austrian brother of Queen Marie Antoinette - and King Frederick William II of Prussia made the Declaration of Pilnitz in August, after consulting French émigré nobles.

The Declaration warned the revolutionaries that they could expect swift reprisals should any harm befall the French royal family. Hoping to restore favour with his people, Louis accepted the Legislative Assembly's declaration of war against the Holy Roman Empire in April 1792. The French army, devastated by revolution, faired badly resulting in a Prussian invasion. In July, the commander in chief of the allied forces, the Duke of Brunswick, declared that the Austrians and Prussians intended to restore Louis to his full powers, effectively undoing the revolution.

While the Duke and his émigré advisers hoped that this declaration would ensure the safety of the King, the actual effect was the opposite of this. Many saw this as collusion between Louis and the foreign powers and the on the night of 10th August supporters of the hard-liner municipal government in the capital, the Paris Commune, besieged the Tuileries. The King sought sanctuary with the Legislative Assembly, which suspended the monarchy. Three days later the authorities arrested the King for High Treason and other offences against the State, imprisoning him in the Temple fortress.

The Legislative Assembly also created a National Convention to draw up a new constitution. When it first met on 20th September it became the de facto executive power in France and the next day it abolished the monarchy and declared a republic. On 11th December the King was brought before the Convention to face the charges brought against him. The King's counsel, Raymond Desèze detailed Louis' defence on the 26th, speaking for three hours he explained that the charges were unconstitutional and questioned the right of the Convention to sit as judge and jury over the monarch.

On 15th January 1793 the 721 deputies of the Convention made a decision on the verdict; 693 of them voted that he was guilty, none of them voted for an acquittal. The next day they voted on the king's punishment; 361 voted for his immediate execution, 72 voted for delayed execution on certain conditions and, 288 voted for an alternative punishment. When the Convention voted down a motion to grant a reprieve the next day - 380 to 310 - the King's fate was sealed.

On Monday 21st January 1793, stripped of all titles, Citizen Louis Capet ascended the scaffold at the Place de la Révolution (formerly the Place Louis XV, now the Place de la Concorde). He started to make a speech to the jubilant crowd in which he declared his innocence and pardoned those that had sent him to his fate. Louis continued to speak but a general in the National Guard, Antoine-Joseph Santerre, cut him short by ordering a drum-roll. Accounts suggest that the guillotine blade did not sever the neck on the first attempt. Following the decapitation many members of the crowd dipped handkerchiefs in Louis' blood as a memento of that fateful day.

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On this day in history: British Parliament expelled John Wilkes, 1764

In June 1762, the Member of Parliament for Aylesbury, John Wilkes, started an anti-government newspaper entitled North Briton; although, he was careful to do so anonymously. He produced it in response to a newspaper called The Briton, which supported the Earl of Bute's new government. Bute was a favourite of King George III, having tutored him while he was Prince of Wales.

In issue number 45 of North Briton, Wilkes criticised the King's speech, particularly the comments concerning the recent Treaty of Paris, which Wilkes considered generous to France. Wilkes' accusations that the King had lied resulted in George ordering his arrest for libel along with forty-nine other people associated with the newspaper. Copies of the edition were seized and Wilkes was sent to the Tower of London.

Wilkes successfully challenged the legality of his arrest under General Warrant, gaining a great deal of popular support in the process as a champion of liberty. In his defence he cited his parliamentary privilege, which gave MPs a degree of legal immunity. Although, the Commons later decided that parliamentary privilege did not apply in the case of seditious libel.

Wilkes' enemies in Parliament continued their campaign against him, particularly the Earl of Sandwich, who Wilkes had embarrassed by bringing a costumed baboon to a meeting of the Hellfire Club. The following year, the Earl read the House of Lords a pornographic poem co-authored by Wilkes entitled 'An Essay on Woman', which parodied Alexander Pope's 'An Essay on Man'. The Lords declared that the poem was both obscene and blasphemous, and moved to expel Wilkes from the Commons.

On 19th January 1764, the House of Commons expelled Wilkes for being an unworthy member, having received proof that he had published North Briton. Wilkes had already fled to France and was tried in absentia for libel. His failure to return to face trial resulted in him being outlawed that November. He remained abroad for four years before returning to England to serve a sentence of twenty-months.

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On this day in history: The British Museum opened to the public, 1759

Over the course of his life the physician and president of the Royal Society, Sir Hans Sloane, built up a large collection of books, natural specimens, antiquities and other curiosities. Some of these he collected himself, starting with his voyage to Jamaica; others he received from friends. He also bought other collections to add to his own, which he made available to learned visitors.

In 1753 Sloane died and as part of his will he bequeathed his collection to King George II for the nation in return for payment of £20,000 to his daughters. Since he wanted the collection to be kept together, if the King showed no interest then the collection would be offered to other centres of learning abroad under the same conditions. While George II showed indifference to the proposal, a number of Members of Parliament - led by the Speaker, Arthur Onslow - were interested in acquiring the collection on behalf of the nation.

After Sloane's former curator valued the collection at between £80,000 to £100,000, Parliament passed an act in July of that year establishing the British Museum. The act enabled them to purchase the collection with money raised by a public lottery. To Sloane's collection they added the Cotton collection of manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the nation in 1700, and the Harleian collection of manuscripts, which they bought for £10,000. In 1757, the King donated the 'Old Royal Library' to the Museum.

On 15th January 1759, the British Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time. The seventeenth-century mansion Montagu House, in the Bloomsbury district of London, housed the collection on the site of the present buildings. Parliament appointed a Board of Trustees to administer the collection, which the public could now view for free.

The British Museum's website includes a number of pages about its history.

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On this day in history: Balloonmania reached the United States, 1793

In the years following the Montgolfier brothers' first successful balloon flights in 1783 'balloonmania' swept across Europe. One of the greatest promoters of this new form of transport was the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard. He made his first successful flight at Paris using a hydrogen filled balloon in March 1784. He then travelled around Europe demonstrating his balloons becoming the first to fly a balloon across the English Channel (accompanied by Dr. John Jeffries), as well the first to fly such devices in Belgium, Germany, Holland and Poland.

Blanchard then crossed the Atlantic and on 9th January 1793 he added to his records by making the first balloon flight in the United States. President George Washington observed Blanchard take to the air at around 10:10am from Philadelphia in Pennsylvania after having given the Frenchman a letter under his seal requiring that no US citizen hinder him. Also watching the launch were the future presidents John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. At 10:56am, Blanchard landed at Deptford in Gloucester County, New Jersey, where he soon attracted a crowd of bemused onlookers who were not only impressed by the manner of his arrival, but also by the President's letter.

Blanchard's Journal of my forty-fifth ascension, being the first performed in America, on the ninth of January, 1793 is available in a number of file formats on the Internet Archive site.

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On this day in history: First edition of The Times published, 1785

In 1781, a wealthy London coal merchant called John Walters joined Lloyd's insurance company only to be left bankrupt by series of disasters. Undeterred, he decided to try his hand as a printer. In 1782, he purchased the patent for a new method of printing using parts of words rather than single letters. He developed this technique and two years later he acquired a printing office in Blackfriars.

Walters started by printing books using his new method. Then, on 1st January 1785, he published the first edition of a daily newspaper called The Daily Universal Register, which he also edited. After three years, he changed the name of the newspaper to The Times.

Like many other newspaper proprietors, Walter supplemented his income with payments from the Treasury to print articles favourable to the government. This arrangement may have been more trouble than it was worth when he was found guilty of libel for publishing an attack on the royal dukes written by Thomas Steele, the joint secretary of the Treasury. After serving eighteen months in Newgate, Walter received a pardon from the Prince of Wales, and in 1795 he retired from the active running his printing business.

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On this day in history: Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji, 1707

On 16th December 1707, Mount Fuji in Japan erupted. While this Hōei Eruption (as it became known) did not produce a lava flow, during its two week duration the eruption sporadically released hundreds of millions of cubic metres of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. This ash fell like rain on the nearby provinces of Izu, Kai, Musashi and Sagami, and witnesses recorded ash falling on Edo nearly 100km (60miles) away.

The eruption resulted in the opening of three new vents on the easterly side of the mountain and a small crater formed by a secondary eruption. Over the next year many effects of the eruption were felt including a flood of the Sakawa river caused by the fallen ash adding to the existing sediment in the riverbed. Mount Fuji has not erupted since Hōei, although it has yet to be declared inactive.

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On this day in history: First edition of Encyclopædia Britannica published, 1768

Two Edinburgh businessmen, a bookseller and printer called Colin Macfarquhar and the engraver Andrew Bell, decided to publish a new encyclopaedia in response to the Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert. They contracted a 28-year-old scholar called William Smellie to edit the publication, paying him £200. Smellie abridged and edited articles from other sources, producing longer articles of grouped subjects as well as the usual shorter articles. Bell produced engravings for the 160 illustrations and Macfarquhar printed the texts at his Nicolson Street premises.

On 6th December 1768, the first part of the Encyclopædia Britannica or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences compiled under a New Plan went on sale, credited to "A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland". It was the first of one-hundred thick quarto pamphlets costing sixpence each (or eight pence for a version on finer paper). The last part appeared in 1771, and later that same year the whole 2,391 page encyclopaedia went on sale bound in three collected volumes for £12 per set.

The venture proved to be a success although not without controversy. The midwifery section included illustrations of female pelvises and foetuses, which proved upsetting to some readers, notably King George III, who commanded that the offending pages be torn from every copy. Nevertheless, Macfarquhar and Bell decided to produce an expanded second edition in 1776, and the encyclopaedia continues to be published to this day, making it the oldest English-language encyclopaedia still in print.

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On this day in history: Battle of Leuthen, 1757

In 1740, the newly crowned King Frederick II of Prussia annexed the prosperous Austrian province of Silesia. He wanted to connect his own disparate lands in Silesia and also prevent other European rulers doing the same. Frederick found his pretext for the invasion in an obscure 1537 treaty by which his dynasty should have inherited a number of Silesian princedoms.

The ensuing conflict, known as the First Silesian War, formed part of the larger War of the Austrian Succession, during which the French and Prussians challenged the power of Hapsburg empire. The Second Silesian War also formed part of this larger conflict, during which the Austrians failed to reclaim the province. The war ended with the signing of the 1745 Treaty of Dresden, by which the Austrian ruler, Maria Theresa, recognised Prussian rule in Silesia, in return for Frederick's recognition of her husband as Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1756 the European powers took up arms once more in the Seven Years' War with the Austrians and Prussians again in opposing camps. Fearing that the Austrians would make another attempt to retake Silesia, Frederick led a pre-emptive strike against Austria's Saxon allies. While he campaigned in Saxony, the Austrian forces managed to capture much of Silesia; so, following the defeat of French and Austrian forces at Rossbach, Frederick turned his attention to retaking Silesia.

On 5th December 1757, Frederick's army found an Austrian force twice its size near the village of Leuthen (now Lutynia, Poland). Frederick marched his troops towards the larger army before ordering his cavalry to make a diversionary assault on a nearby village before forming up to face the Austrian right flank. He then marched his infantry to the south behind a line of hills.

The Austrian commander, Prince Charles of Lorraine, had deployed his men in very long lines, knowing that the flanking attack was Frederick's favourite tactic. When he saw the Prussian cavalry face his right flank, he suspected that they were about to act as the spearhead of just such an offensive move; consequently, he sent his reserve and his cavalry to strengthen his right. Then, when he saw the Prussian infantry marching, Charles assumed them to be retreating.

Rather than retreating, Frederick marched his men round to engage the Austrian left flank, which crumbled. Charles tried to reform his troops, but the length of his lines meant that this was a slow process. Nevertheless, The Austrian cavalry saw an opportunity to outflank Frederick, but they were intercepted by the Prussian cavalry and the ensuing melee careered into the back of the Austrian lines, which broke.

Frederick's army of approximately 36,000 men and 167 guns defeated an Austrian force of around 80,000 men armed with 210 cannon. The Prussians lost 1,141 men with 5,118 wounded, compared to over 3,000 Austrian fatalities and around 7,000 wounded. The Prussians captured something in the order of 12,000 Austrians, while the rest of Charles' army fled to join the Austrian withdrawal from Silesia.

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On this day in history: Oldest surviving synagogue in North America dedicated, 1763

In May 1492, the joint monarchs of Spain, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, made the Alhambra Decree, by which all Jews in Spanish territories had to either convert to Catholicism or go into exile. Many Jewish families fled the Iberian peninsular and settled in the Caribbean only to have to move on when they were found by the Inquisition. So it was that a group of fifteen Jewish families arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1658 to enjoy the religious tolerance afforded there.

Over the next century their community grew large enough to form a congregation called Nefutse Yisrael ("the Scattered of Israel") and undertook to raise the funds to build a synagogue. Construction of the building, designed by Peter Harrison, began in 1759. The following year the congregation elected their first religious leader, the Dutch born Isaac de Abraham Touro. On 2nd December 1763, he dedicated the synagogue, which bears his name.

The academic and Congregationalist minister Ezra Stiles recorded the dedication ceremony, which he attended:

In the Afternoon was the dedication of the new Synagogue in this Town. It began by a handsome procession in which were carried the Books of the Law, to be deposited in the Ark. Several Portions of Scripture, & of their Service with a Prayer for the Royal Family, were read and finely sung by the priest [Chazzan Touro] & People. There were present many Gentlemen & Ladies. The Order and Decorum, the Harmony & Solemnity of the Musick, together with a handsome Assembly of People, in a Edifice the most perfect of the Temple kind perhaps in America, & splendidly illuminated, could not but raise in the Mind a faint Idea of the Majesty & Grandeur of the Ancient Jewish Worship mentioned in Scripture.

Dr. Isaac de Abraham Touro performed the Service. The Synagogue is about perhaps fourty foot long & 30 wide, of Brick on a Foundation of free Stone: it was begun about two years ago, & is now finished except the Porch & the Capitals of the Pillars. The Front representation of the holy of holies or its Partition Veil, consists only of wainscoted Breast Work on the East End, in the lower part of which four long Doors cover an upright Square Closet the depth of which is about a foot or the thickness of the Wall, & in this Apartment (vulgarly called the Ark) were deposited three Copies & Rolls of the Pentateuch, written on Vellum or rather tanned Calf Skin; one of these Rolls I was told by Dr. Touro was presented from Amsterdam & is Two Hundred years old; the Letters have the Rabbinical Flourishes.

A Gallery for the Women runs round the whole Inside, except the East End supported by Columns of Ionic order, over which are placed correspondent Columns of the Corinthian order supporting the Cieling of the Roof. The Depth of the Corinthian Pedestal is the height of the Balustrade which runs round the Gallery. The Pulpit for Reading the Law, is a raised Pew with an extended front table; this placed about the center of the Synagogue or nearer the West End, being a Square embalustraded Comporting with the Length of the indented Chancel before & at the Foot of the Ark.

On the middle of the North Side & affixed to the ·Wall is a raised Seat for the Parnas or Ruler, & for the Elders; the Breast and Back interlaid with Chinese Mosaic Work. A Wainscotted Seat runs round the Sides of the Synagogue below, & another in the Gallery. There are no other Seats or pews. There may be Eighty Souls of Jews or 15 families now in Town. The Synagogue has already cost Fifteen Hundred Pounds Sterling. There are to be five Lamps pendant from a lofty Ceiling.
G. A. Kohut & P. Cowen, Ezra Stiles and the Jews, Selected Passages from his Literary Diary Concerning Jews and Judaism with Critical and Explanatory Notes (New York, 1902), pp. 58-9.

The Touro Synagogue website offers more information about the history of the Jewish community in Newport and their place of worship.

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On this day in history: Capital punishment abolished in Tuscany, 1786

In 1765, Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard succeeded his father, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, as Grand Duke of Tuscany. For five years of his reign a group of counselors selected by his mother administered the Grand Duchy. Finally, in 1770 he visited Vienna and secured full control over Tuscany.

Peter Leopold set about reforming the Grand Duchy. Although he was unsuccessful in his attempt to secularise his state, he did remove many of the restrictions on commerce and personal freedom that the Medici had instituted and his father had left in place. He also started the process of drawing up a political constitution.

His enlightened attitudes extended to the punishment of criminals. After reading Cesare Beccaria's 1764 treatise on penal reform, Dei delitti e delle pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), he started blocking the application of the death penalty, with no executions taking place after 1769. On 30th November 1786, he promulgated a reform that banned torture, abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all instruments of capital punishment, making the Grand Duchy of Tuscany the first modern state to permanently abolish the death penalty.

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On this day in history: The Great Storm of 1703

On the night of 26th November 1703, the gale force winds that had swept over Britain for a week reached a climax. Winds travelling at an estimated 120 mph blew down buildings and carried people and animals through the air. Gusts uprooting over four-thousand oak trees in the New Forest alone.

The gales first struck the West Country causing widespread flooding in the Bristol area. In nearby Wells, Bishop Richard Kidder and his wife were killed when two chimney stacks collapsed on them while they slept. On land, over one-hundred people lost their lives, but the death toll was much higher at sea with many thousands dying: the Royal Navy lost thirteen ships and over fifteen-hundred men.

In London, the winds tore the roof off Westminster Abbey and many other churches lost their towers and spires. A row of houses near Moorfields collapsed and around seven-hundred ships in the docks were crushed into each other. Queen Anne took refuge in the basement of St. James Palace while part of its roof collapsed.

The storm abated the following morning, but strong winds continued to blow until 2nd December. The writer Daniel Defoe published a collection of eyewitness accounts of the devastation in a book called The storm: or, a collection of the most remarkable casualties and disasters which happen'd in the late dreadful tempest, both by sea and land (1704). He wrote:

In short, Horror and Confusion seiz'd upon all, whether on Shore or Sea: No Pen can describe it, no Tongue can express it, no Thought conceive it, unless some of those who were in the Extremity of it; and who, being touch'd with a due sense of the sparing Mercy of their Maker, retain the deep Impression of Goodness upon their Minds, tho' the Danger be past: and of those I doubt the Number is but a few.

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On this day in history: Blackbeard killed, 1718

The early life of the pirate known as Blackbeard remains something of a mystery, as does his real name. Edward Teach (or Thatch, or possibly Drummond) probably grew up in Bristol, England, before embarking on a life at sea. Apparently, he signed up with a privateer (a state-endorsed pirate) in Jamaica during the War of the Spanish Succession.

When that conflict ended in 1713, Teach, like many sailors decided to continue the profitable life of a pirate, rather than sign up for a harsher life in the merchant marine or the Royal Navy. He joined Benjamin Hornigold's crew in 1716, and soon received command of one of Hornigold's fleet in recognition of his aggression. The following year, they captured the twenty gun, 300-ton French warship, La Concorde de Nantes, originally a British ship called Concord, which Teach took command of.

Teach renamed the ship Queen Anne's Revenge and doubled its number of guns to forty. In this heavily armed vessel, Blackbeard was able to fight off any Royal Navy ships sent to capture him, while he continued to capture and plunder merchant ships. Reputedly he attacked at least eighteen vessels in a six-month period, developing a reputation as a fearsome pirate.

The legends that surrounded Blackbeard meant that his reputation was often enough for ships to surrender to him, giving him the confidence to undertake his most audacious plan: a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. With Hornigold having given up piracy and accepted a pardon, in May 1718 Blackbeard took a flotilla of four vessels to the mouth of Charleston harbour, where they plundered eight or nine merchant ships, ransoming their prizes for a chest of medicine before making their escape.

The following month, Queen Anne's Revenge and one of the smaller ships ran aground at Topsail inlet (now Beaufort inlet), North Carolina. Blackbeard may have done so on purpose in order to limit his crew to his most trusted men, who would consequently receive a larger share of the booty. He sailed to the North Carolina port of Bath Town, where he obtained a pardon from Governor Charles Eden and married a planter's daughter.

The governor of the neighbouring colony of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, suspected Blackbeard's continued piracy under the protection of Governer Eden in return for a share of the spoils. Even though Blackbeard was operating beyond Spotswood's jurisdiction, the Governor of Virginia decided to finance a expedition by both land and sea to expose the conspiracy and cement his own position, which was under threat from his council. He put a price of £100 on Blackbeard's head and sent two hired sloops, the the Ranger and Jane, to locate the pirate ships.

On 22nd November 1718, Lieutenant Robert Maynard and his fifty-four men engaged Blackbeard and his brigands at an inlet on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. As Blackbeard made a run for it in the Adventure, Maynards sloops gave chase but ran aground. After re-floating, Maynard ordered his crews to row after the pirates, there being insufficient wind to deploy sails.

As Jane pulled alongside Adventure, the pirates fired a broadside killing its captain and several of the crew. Maynard continued the pursuit, hitting Adventure's rigging and forcing her ashore. Maynard then ordered his men to hide in the holds and prepare for the pirate boarding party. In the ensuing mêlée Blackbeard was killed, reportedly he had been shot five times and suffered twenty stab wounds.

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On this day in history: The Louvre opened as a museum, 1793

On 8th November 1793, as the Reign of Terror began in Revolutionary France the Palais du Louvre (Louvre Palace) first opened in its new role housing a national museum. The palace started life as a twelfth-century fortress, which successive generations of French monarchs altered and expanded. In the mid-eighteenth-century, King Louis XV accepted a proposal to use part of the palace as a gallery in which visitors could view part of the royal collection.

Following the execution of Louis XVI and the suppression of the Catholic Church their respective art collections became property of the French people, as did many works of art confiscated from émigrés (those who had fled the country as the Revolution progressed). The public could view the initial collection of 537 paintings and 184 other works of art for free on three days a week. The French government pledged to provide 100,000 livres per year to expand the collection, but the military successes of the Republic resulted in many works of art from across Europe being brought back to France - a process that continued during Napoleon's reign.

If you wish to learn more, visit the history pages on the Louvre web site.

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On this day in history: Last hanging at Tyburn gallows, 1783

The gallows at Tyburn in London were the site of the demise of many infamous characters. The first record of an execution there dates from 1196 when the leader of the London tax riots, William Fitz Osbern, along with nine of his accomplices were hanged from a gibbet. In 1499, Perkin Walbeck was convicted of treason and hanged at Tyburn: he had led the Cornish Rebellion two years before, claiming to be Richard IV, the younger of the two princes imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle, King Richard III.

In 1571 the Elizabethan authorities constructed the "Tyburn Tree" a horizontal wooden triangle on three legs that enabled many people to be hanged at the same time. The religious strife of that period meant that many people were martyred at Tyburn including Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and John Southworth, all of whom were later made saints by the Roman Catholic church. Later, following the restoration of King Charles II to the throne, the bodies of the regicides John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, and Henry Ireton were exhumed and symbolically hanged in an act of grisly revenge.

On 3rd November 1783, the highwayman John Austin became the last person to be hanged at Tyburn. He was convicted of robbing and wounding 'a poor man' called John Spicer in a field near the road in Bethnal Green. Reportedly Austin's last words were "Good people, I request your prayers for the salvation of my departing soul; let my example teach you to shun the bad ways I have followed; keep good company, and mind the word of God." The sight of the "Tyburn Tree" is marked today by three brass triangles where Bayswater Road meets Edgware Road.

The transcript of the trial of John Austin is available on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey web-site.

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On this day in history: French National Convention dissolved, 1795

In September 1792 the French National Convention met for the first time. It replaced the Legislative Assembly, which created it in order to draw up a new republican constitution. Their first order of business, however, was the trial and execution of Citizen Louis Capet, formerly King Louis XIV.

On 24th June 1793, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France. Yet, the pressures of war against an alliance of European monarchies and fears of counter-revolution resulted in the constitution never being implemented. Instead France was effectively governed by the Committee of Public Safety under the control of the Maximillien Robespierre and the Jacobins, in a period known as the Reign of Terror.

Following the fall of Robespierre in July 1794, the Convention had to deal with a royalist resurgence. They crushed suppressed an émigré force that landed by the British. The Convention delegates so feared that royalists would gain power that when it came to ratifying a new constitution, they first passed a Two Thirds Law requiring that only one thirds of the seats in the first election of the new government would be open to new members, ensuring that existing members of the Convention were in the majority.

The Convention ratified the new constitution on 22nd August 1795, and submitted it and the Two Thirds Law to the primary regional assemblies. In spite of widespread opposition, the Convention declared that 1,057,000 votes had been cast in favour of the new constitution, and only 49,000 against. Suspicions of vote rigging resulted in around 25,000 royalist insurgents, including National Guardsmen, from Paris marching on the Convention on 5th October. They were defeated by regular troops, including a young artillery general called Napoleon Bonaparte.

On 26th October 1795, the National Convention dissolved itself. Under the terms of the new constitution it was replaced by a bicameral legislature consisting of the the lower house called the Council of Five Hundred, responsible for drawing up legislation, and a 250 member Council of Ancients, which could accept or reject laws but not draw up their own. The Council of Ancients elected a five man executive called the Directory, which gave its name to the new government.

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On this day in history: The Great Hurricane, 1780

On 10th October 1780, the deadliest recorded Atlantic hurricane reached the island of Barbados, pounding the island with two-hundred mile per hour winds. Over the next week it left a swathe of destruction on the Windward Isles, the Leeward Isles, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola before turning north-east and heading back into the Atlantic. The direct effects of the hurricane killed an estimated twenty-two thousand people: 9,000 in Martinique; 4,500 in Barbados; and, 4,500 in St. Eustatius.

The British naval officer Lord Rodney wrote to his wife describing the destruction on Barbados:

The strongest buildings and the whole of the houses, most of which were stone, and remarkable for their solidity, gave way to the fury of the wind, and were torn up to their foundations; all the forts destroyed, and many of the heavy cannon carried upwards of a hundred feet from the forts. Had I not been an eyewitness, nothing could have induced me to have believed it. More than six thousand persons perished, and all the inhabitants are entirely ruined.

Rodney was commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, commanding the British fleet in naval engagements against the French and Spanish as part of the American War of Independence. The hurricane destroyed eight of his twelve ships while they were moored off the island of St. Lucia, killing hundreds of sailors. One of these ships destroyed the hospital at Port Castries when the weather hurled the ship on top of it.

The French suffered even greater losses. A fleet of forty ships transporting men to fight in the war sank with the loss of around 4,000 lives. The hurricane also destroyed nineteen Dutch ships at Grenada.

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