HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 



283 



DICTIONARY OF HISTORY. 



Abbeys and Monasteries robbed of their plate and 

 jewels by William the Conqueror, 1069; entirely dis- 

 solved by Henry the VIII., 1540. This ruler suppressed 

 in England and Wales 643 monasteries, 90 colleges. 2374 

 churches and chapels, and 110 hospitals; and had the 

 abbots of Reading, Glastonbury, and St. John's, Col- 

 chester, hanged and quartered for refusing to surren- 

 der their abbeys, and denying his supremacy. 



Aberdeen, University 'of, founded 1477 ^ King's Col- 

 lege founded 1500; Marechal College founded 1593; the 

 town of Aberdeen and its vicinity was visited by a 

 destructive inundation Augusts, J829. 



Aboukir, in Egypt, surrendered to the English forces 

 .March 18, 1801. 



Abydos is a town of Asia Minor, situated on the 

 Hellespont. Tradition places here the story of Hero 

 andLeander; history tells that this was where Xerxes 

 led his vast army over the Hellespont on a bridge of 

 boats ; and Bvron here swam the Hellespont, and ren- 

 dered it ever famous by his " Bride of Abydos." 



Acre, taken by_ Richard I. and other Crusaders July 

 12, 1191, after a siege of two years and the loss of 300,000 

 men; attacked by the French under Bonaparte, who, 

 failing in the twelfth assault, retired with great loss of 

 men, May 21, 1799. 



Actium, in Epinis, naval battle of, which rendered 

 Augustus master of the Roman Empire, September 2, 

 31 B. C. 



Adrianople, taken by the Ottomans, 1360; taken 

 from the Turks by the Russians, 1829. 



Agincourt, Battle of, between the French and Eng- 

 lish, gained by Henry V., October 25, 1415; 10,000 of the 

 French killed and 14,000 taken prisoners, the English 

 losing only 40. In the French army were four times as 

 many men as in the English. 



Aix-la-Chapelle, taken by the French, 1793; and 

 again, September 21, 1794; Congress at, September 29, 

 1818. 



A lhaii* St., the first battle between the Houses of 

 York and Lancaster, in which the former was victori- 

 ous, May 22, 1455 ; another battle was fought, February 

 2, 1461, between the Yorkists, under the Earl of War- 

 wick, and the Lancastrians, under Queen Margaret; 

 the latter were the victors. 



Alderton Moor, Yorkshire, Battle of, where the Roy- 

 alists routed the Parliamentarians, June 29, 1643. 



Alessandria, Italy, taken by the French, 1798; sur- 

 rendered to the Austrians and Russians, July 24, 1799. 



Alexandria, Egypt, built by Alexander in 17 clays, 

 the walls whereof were six miles in circuit, B. C. 333; 

 taken by Caesar, B. C. 46; by Dioclesian, 296 A. D.; by 

 the Persians, 615 A. D. ; by the Saracens, 640 A.D; by 

 the French, 1798. Battle of, between the French arid 

 English, in which the former were defeated, but the 

 English general, Abercromby, was killed, 1801. 



Alhambra, The, is a palace and fortress of the 

 Moors, founded about 125.3, by Mohammed I. Cele- 

 brated as the palace of the kings of Granada. Its two 

 courts, that of the Myrtles and that of the Lions, are 

 beautiful examples of Arabian art in Spain. The Al- 

 hambra was surrendered to the Christians by the Moors 

 about 1491. 



Albinos, called also Leucoethiopes, or white negroes, 

 and by the Dutch and Germans Xakerlaken, were at 

 one time considered a distinct race, but closer observa- 

 tion has shown that the same phenomenon occurs in 

 individuals of a!5 races, and that the peculiar white 

 appearance rises from an irregularity of the skin. The 

 iris of the eye is red in the Albino. Albinoism occurs 

 also in other mammalia, birds, and insects. 



Alabama, first settlement was made by the French, 

 at Mobile, in 1711. The commerce of the state is consid- 

 erable, and its manufacturing interests are increasing 

 rapidly; chiefly cotton and cotton goods, yarn, thread, 

 iron, leather, and lumber. Its mining interests are being 

 rapidly developed: but the principal industry is agri- 

 culture, cotton and corn being the leading productions. 

 Various cereals, sugar cane, rice, and tobacco are also 

 produced. 



Alaska was purchased by the United States from 

 Russia in 1867, for $7,200,000 in gold, and -was formally 

 taken possession of October 9th of the same year by 

 General Rousseau on behalf of the United States, a"t 

 New Archangel, on the Island of Sitka. With the 

 islands, it comprises 580,107 square miles, or nearly one 

 sixth of the entire area of the United States previo'us to 

 this purchase. The land abounds in fur-bearing ani- 

 mals ; the seas yield fur-bearing seals and others, and 



fish in immense quantities. Among other important 

 resources of the Territory arc lumber and minerals of 

 all kinds. The southwestern part is covered for thou- 

 sands of miles with dense forests of yellow cedar, white 

 spruce, and balsam fir. Among the valuable minerals, 

 coal has been found at different places along the coast : 

 petroleum, lead, iron, and graphite at various points; 

 copper, marble, and sulphur in great abundance; also 

 gold and silver and valuable stones, such as amethysts, 

 garnets, agates, and carnelians. The climate of the 

 Territory is very severe in the inland districts, but mild 

 along the coast. At Fort Yukon the thermometer sinks 

 as low as seventy degrees below zero in the winter; the 

 summers are short and hot, the winters long and cold. 

 In Southern Alaska the winter climate is the average 

 winter climate of Kentucky, and the summer climate 

 about that of Minnesota. The capital of Alaska is 

 Sitka, and the Territory is governed by a Governor and 

 other necessary officers appointed by the authorities at 

 Washington. The trade of seal hunting is entirely in 

 the hands of the Alaska Commercial Company, who in 

 1870 secured, by Act of Congress, a monopoly of this 

 business for twenty years. They are not allowed, how- 

 ever, to kill the animals except during certain months 

 in the year, nor more than a. specified number annually. 



Alexandrian Library, consisting of 400,000 manu- 

 scripts, destroyed by fire B. C. 47. The second library, 

 consisting of 700,000 volumes, was destroyed by the Sar- 

 acens, under Caliph Omar, at whose command they for 

 six months burned books instead of wood, for the pur- 

 pose of heating water for their baths, G40 A. D. 



Algiers, formerly the country called Numidia, as 

 united under Massinissa and Jugurtha. It became a Ro- 

 manprovince44B.C. ; afterwards it was independent, till 

 the inhabitants invited Barbarossa the pirate to assist 

 them against the Spaniards, who, however, seized it, 

 1516. Sometime afterward it became the property of 

 the Turks ; reduced by Admiral Blake, 1655 : hombarded 

 by the French, 1761 ; bombarded by the British fleet, 

 and the Christian captives set free, August 27, 1816. 

 The French army, under the command of General Bour- 

 mont, landed in the Bay of Sidi Feraeh, June 14, 1830; 

 the city was taken July 5th ; and the whole of the terri- 

 tory of Algiers was subsequently reduced, and became 

 a province of France. 



Altars, instituted by Pope Sixtus I., 117 A. D. ; first 

 Christian altar erected la Britain, 634; first consecrated 

 by Pope Sylvester, 1334. 



Amazons, The, made an irruption into Attica about 

 1209 B. C. ; a queen of, visited Alexander the Great and 

 cohabited with him, in the hopes of having issue, but 

 died soon after her return home, 330 B. C. 



America, first discovered by Columbus, 1492 ; South 

 America, completely, by AmericusVespucius, a Floren- 

 tine, and North America by John Cabot, a Venetian, 

 1497 ; thirteen colonies declared themselves independent 

 of the British crown, July 4, 1776, and recognized as 

 such by England, 1783. South American independence 

 was established and recognized by the United States 

 and England, who sent consuls to "the new state, 1824. 

 American Congress, first met at Philadelphia Septem- 

 ber 5, 1775; removed to Washington, 1801. 



Amerigo Vespucci was a naval astronomer, from 

 whom America accidentally received its name. He was 

 born at Florence, March 9, 1451, and was at the head of 

 a large Florentine firm in Seville in 1496. He fitted out 

 Columbus' third fleet, and in 1499 himself sailed for the 

 New World with Ojeda, and explored the coast of Ven- 

 ezuela. The accident which fastened his name on two 

 continents may be traced to an inaccurate account of 

 his travels published at St. Di in Lorraine in 1507. in 

 which he is represented to have reached the mainland 

 in 1497 which would have been before either Cabot or 

 Columbus and in which the suggestion is made that 

 he should give his name to the world he had discovered. 



Anglesey, the Mona of the Romans, reduced by 

 Julius Agncola, 76 A. 1). ; by the English, 1295. 



Anjou, Battle of, where "the Duke of Clarence and 

 1,500 English were slain, 1421. 



Anglo-Saxons, first landed in Britain 449. 



Anointing, first used at the coronation of Alfred, 

 872. 



Antioch, in Syria, built by Seleucus after the battle 

 of Ipsus, B. C. 300 ; 100,000 of its inhabitants killed by the 

 Jews in one day, B. C. 145. 



Antonio, Battle of, in Mexico, between the Royalists 

 and Independents, August 18, 1813; the latter were 

 defeated. 



Appian Way, aqueduct s . etc., constructed at Rome, 



.\ iiiuai: 

 . C. 311. 



