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George Downie
George Downie (19 January 1778 – 11 September 1814) was a Scottish officer of the British Royal Navy. During the War of 1812, he commanded a British squadron that fought an American squadron on Lake Champlain in the Battle of Plattsburgh, during which he was killed. Biography Background and early career Downie was born in the village of Tong near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. He was the son of The Reverend John Downie, minister of Stornoway, and Charlotte Mackenzie. He joined the Royal Navy in around 1790 as a midshipman, served aboard the frigate , and saw action during the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797. He then served aboard the frigates and in the West Indies for several years. He was promoted to acting-lieutenant, and after he returned to the United Kingdom on sick leave, his promotion was confirmed on 23 March 1802. Lieutenant In 1804 he was appointed to the 38-gun frigate , and in May 1805 was serving as first lieutenant unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tong, Lewis
Tong (; gd, Tunga) is a village on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, northeast of the main town of Stornoway on the B895 road to Back and Tolsta. The population of the village is 527 ( 2001 census). Fishing forms part of the local economy. History Between 1919 and 1921, Tong, along with nearby Coll and Gress, was the scene of several land raids. (See the Coll, Lewis article for more). Facilities The village has a community centre with a football pitch and a primary school. Its religious establishments include a Free Church of Scotland mission house and a Scottish Episcopal Church meeting house. On 6 August 2014 The Tong Shop (Bùth Thunga) opened in the former Episcopal Church building. The shop is open from Monday to Saturday and it sells a range of essentials such as milk and bread, as well as local produce such as vegetables and Stornoway black pudding. Culture and sport Every July the Lewis Highland Games and Western Isles Strongest man are held at the community ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courtenay Boyle
Sir Courtenay Boyle, KCH (3 September 1770 – 21 May 1844) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1807 he served as a Member of Parliament for Bandon. Origins Courtenay Boyle was born in 1770, the 3rd but 2nd surviving son of Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork by his first wife Anne Courtenay, second daughter and co-heiress of Kellond Courtenay of Painsford in the parish of Ashprington in Devon,Aspinall a niece of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Courtenay Boyle was a relative of Captain Sir Charles Boyle, who commanded the 98-gun at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805. He was also a relative of Commodore Robert Boyle, who died in a hurricane off Jamaica while commanding a squadron dispatched to the West Indies. Career American War of Independence Boyle went to sea aboard during the American War of Independence, he went out in , and on returning home was sent to a naval academy at Greenwich. He entered the Royal Navy on 12 Sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1814 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – War of the Sixth Coalition – The Royal Prussian Army led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher crosses the Rhine. * January 3 ** War of the Sixth Coalition – Siege of Cattaro: French garrison surrenders to the British after ten days of bombardment. ** War of the Sixth Coalition – Siege of Metz: Allied armies lay siege to the French city and fortress of Metz. * January 5 – Mexican War of Independence – Battle of Puruarán: Spanish Royalists defeat Mexican Rebels. * January 11 – War of the Sixth Coalition – Battle of Hoogstraten: Prussian forces under Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow defeat the French. * January 14 ** Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway into personal union with Sweden, in exchange for west Pomerania. This marks the end of the real union of Denmark-Norway. ** War of the Sixth Coalition – Siege of Antwerp: Allied forces besiege French Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1778 Births
Events January–March * January 18 – Third voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook, with ships HMS ''Resolution'' and HMS ''Discovery'', first views Oahu then Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, which he names the ''Sandwich Islands''. * February 5 – **South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. ** **General John Cadwalader shoots and seriously wounds Major General Thomas Conway in a duel after a dispute between the two officers over Conway's continued criticism of General George Washington's leadership of the Continental Army.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p166 * February 6 – American Revolutionary War – In Paris, the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France, signaling official French recognition of the new rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bentley (publisher)
Richard Bentley (24 October 1794 – 10 September 1871) was a 19th-century English publisher born into a publishing family. He started a firm with his brother in 1819. Ten years later, he went into partnership with the publisher Henry Colburn. Although the business was often successful, publishing the famous "Standard Novels" series, they ended their partnership in acrimony three years later. Bentley continued alone profitably in the 1830s and early 1840s, establishing the well-known periodical ''Bentley's Miscellany''. However, the periodical went into decline after its editor, Charles Dickens, left. Bentley's business started to falter after 1843 and he sold many of his copyrights. Only 15 years later did it begin to recover. Early life Bentley came from a publishing family that stretched back three generations. His father, Edward Bentley, and his uncle, John Nichols, published the ''General Evening Post'', and Nichols also published the ''Gentleman's Magazine''.Wallins, 40.P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C., Annapolis forms part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census recorded its population as 40,812, an increase of 6.3% since 2010. This city served as the seat of the Confederation Congress, formerly the Second Continental Congress, and temporary national capital of the United States in 1783–1784. At that time, General George Washington came before the body convened in the new Maryland State House and resigned his commission as commander of the Continental Army. A month later, the Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War, with Great Britain recognizing the independence of the United States. The city and state capitol was also the site of the 1786 An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is the second oldest of the five U.S. service academies and it educates midshipmen for service in the officer corps of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, east of Washington, D.C., and southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus, known colloquially as the Yard, is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that had served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845, when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis. Candidates for admission generally must apply directly t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border spans the centre of the lake. The Canadian cities of Toronto, Kingston, Mississauga, and Hamilton are located on the lake's northern and western shorelines, while the American city of Rochester is located on the south shore. In the Huron language, the name means "great lake". Its primary inlet is the Niagara River from Lake Erie. The last in the Great Lakes chain, Lake Ontario serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River, comprising the eastern end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam regulates the water level of the lake. Geography Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area (7,340 sq mi, 18,960 km2), although it exceeds Lake Eri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain regardless of rank; * Commander (Royal Navy), Commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in ''Aubrey-Maturin series#Master and Commander, Master and Commander'' or the fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower in ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''); this custom is now defunct. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he was "on the beach" and on half-pay. An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was a rating system of the Royal Navy, ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. There has been a settlement in this location since the Mesolithic era. A nunnery was founded by Eanswith, granddaughter of Æthelberht of Kent in the 7th century, who is still commemorated as part of the town's culture. During the 13th century it subsequently developed into a seaport and the harbour developed during the early 19th century to provide defence against a French invasion. Folkestone expanded further west after the arrival of the railway in 1843 as an elegant coastal resort, thanks to the investment of the Earl of Radnor under the urban plan of Decimus Burton. In its heyday - during the Edwardian era - Folkestone was considered the most fashionable resort of the time, visited by royalties - amongst them Queen Victo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fécamp
Fécamp () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Alabaster Coast. It is around 35 km northeast of Le Havre, and around 60 km northwest of Rouen. History Origin of the name According to its late medieval founding legend, the trunk of a fig tree (''ficus'') carrying the Precious Blood of Christ collected by Joseph of Arimathea was washed ashore on the riverbank at Fécamp in the 1st century. Immediately, a fountain of holy blood gushed from the site; the relic attracted many medieval pilgrims, enhancing the reputation of the city. The monks' legend justified the artificial etymology of the name to ''Fici-campus'', the camp of the fig tree. Fécamp, however, is mentioned in 875 as ''Fiscannum'' and in 990 as ''Fiscannus'' and as late as 1496 which stem from the Germanic root ''fisc'' (English "fish") with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skopelos
Skopelos ( el, Σκόπελος, ) is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group, which lies east of the Pelion peninsula on the mainland and north of the island of Euboea. It is part of the Thessaly region. Skopelos is also the name of the main port and the municipal center of the island. The other communities of the island are Glossa and Neo Klima (Elios). The geography of Skopelos includes two mountains over ; Delphi () in the center of the island, and Palouki () in the southeast. With an area of Skopelos is slightly larger than Mykonos () and Santorini (). The nearest inhabited islands are Skiathos to the west and Alonnisos to the east. History According to the legend, Skopelos was founded by Staphylos (Greek for grape), one of the sons of the god Dionysos and the princess Ariadne of Crete. Historically, in the Late Bronze Age the island, then known as Peparethos or Peparethus ( grc, Πεπά ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
