James Hogun (died January 4, 1781) was one of five generals from North Carolina to serve with the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. Initially a major in the 7th North Carolina Regiment, Hogun advanced quickly in rank to command the unit in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in 1777. After the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general, he commanded North Carolina's line brigade during the Siege of Charleston in the spring of 1780, which ended in the surrender of all but one of his regiments of regular infantry. He was the highest-ranking officer from North Carolina to be captured and imprisoned after the surrender of Charleston. Despite being offered the opportunity to leave internment under a parole that was generally extended to other captured Continental officers, he remained in a British prisoner-of-war camp, in part to hinder British efforts to enlist captured Continental soldiers to serve in the British West Indies. Hogun and the other officers in the camp at Haddrel's Point, a peninsula in Charleston's harbor, were subjected to harsh treatment, and he soon became ill and died in prison. (Full article...)
1970 – A magnitude 7.5 Msd earthquake struckTonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people and spurring the creation of the nation's largest earthquake monitoring system.
The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden(pictured), appointed in 1668 by Charles II. Dryden, a Catholic convert, refused to take the Oath of Allegiance following the accession of the Protestant William III and Mary II to the throne, and he was dismissed from office in 1689. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The holder of the position as at 2015 is Carol Ann Duffy, who was appointed in May 2009. (Full list...)
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