Hanged on this date in 1726, Joseph Quasson enjoys a minor distinction in the annals of the gallows press: according to friend of the blog Anthony Vaver, Samuel Moody’s account of Quasson’s long* jailhouse sojourn was the first published in the colonies as a standalone conversion narrative, without cover of an attached ministerial sermon.

And here it is:

* Quasson fatally shot a fellow enlistee serving during Father Rale’s War. There was no question about his guilt, but when the murder took place the next sitting of the court was nine months away so the man just got to cool his heels.

On this day..

• 1938: Shlomo Ben-Yosef, Mandatory Palestine Zionist protomartyr
• 1955: Gerhard Benkowitz and Hans-Dietrich Kogel, of the KgU
• 1996: The Abu Salim prison massacre
• 1900: Benjamin Snell, electricity in his head
• 1612: Robert Crichton, Lord Sanquhar and mediocre swordsman
• 1944: A day in mass executions in Axis Europe
• 1799: Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitan
• 1925: Sheikh Said Piran, Kurdish rebel
• 1541: Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre
• Feast Day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
• 2000: Two kidnappers, televised by Guatemala