From the York Herald and General Advertiser (York, England) of Saturday, Aug. 16, 1817.
Five English soldiers being on guard, the 18th of June last, at one of the gates of Valenciennes, committed a robbery on the house of an individual, and were condemned to be hanged. They were conducted, by the orders of Lord Wellington, on the 3d of July, outside the walls of the town, to undergo their punishment.
The people followed the culprits, invoking, in accents of sorrow, the pity of their officers, and crying “Mercy! Mercy!”
Two of them were executed, and the other three received their pardon at the very moment they were about to part with life. At this news the joy of the numerous spectators was extreme, and the thanks they addressed to the English General were no doubt less eloquent than the joy from which they emanated.
On this day..
- 1936: Saburo Aizawa, incidentally
- 1623: Claes Michielsz Bontebal, Maurice murder moneybags
- 1941: 3,500 Jews at the Khotyn Fortress ... but not Adolph Sternschuss
- 1939: Ramiro Artieda, Bolivian serial killer
- 1741: Prince, Tony, Cato, Harry and York
- 1865: Okada Izo, barbarian-expeller
- 1969: Lee Soogeun, North Korean defector
- 1945: Dr. Achmad Mochtar, quiet hero
- 1648: The leaders of the Salt Riot
- 1972: Three Somali officers for an attempted coup
- 1931: Ernesto Opisso
- 1570: Aonio Paleario, Italian religious reformer