One of the earliest description in classical literature of applying the knowledge of English letter frequency to solving a cryptogram is found in E.A. Poe's famous story The Gold-Bug, where the method is successfully applied to decipher a message instructing on the whereabouts of a treasure hidden by Captain Kidd.
William Shakespeare | William Laud | William Blake | William | William III of England | William Morris | William McKinley | William Howard Taft | William Ewart Gladstone | William the Conqueror | William S. Burroughs | William Shatner | William Faulkner | William Randolph Hearst | William Wordsworth | William Tecumseh Sherman | William Hogarth | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | William Penn | William Jennings Bryan | William Gibson | William Wilberforce | William James | William Makepeace Thackeray | Fort William | William Hanna | William Hague | William III | William Hurt | William Walton |
January 30 - Captain William Kidd plunders the Quedagh Merchant, an Armenian merchant vessel sailing under French passes, near the Malabar Coast.
Meanwhile, William Kidd, hunting pirates, found Culliford at St. Mary's Island (Île Sainte-Marie).