Historical Writings

Death of Eustathius I (aka Jevstatije), the sixth Serbian archbishop. He will be commemorated as a saint.

Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, issued the first secular mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.

German Reformer Martin Luther testified in a sermon: 'Faith is the "yes" of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one's life.'

Execution by fire of Hans Bret, a young Anabaptist Protestant in Antwerp. He had been tortured for months in an attempt to force him to deny his faith but kept such a bold testimony his persecutors clamped and seared his tongue so that he could not preach to the crowd when taken to the stake.

Death in Maryland of Mother Elizabeth Bayley Seton, first native-born American canonized by the Catholic church. She had founded the American Sisters of Charity and was behind the present system of Catholic parochial schools.

Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S., and served two terms (1915-19).

Presbyterian clergyman Peter Marshall ("A Man Called Peter"), 45, was elected Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He was the 54th chaplain chosen in the Senate's history, and the first Presbyterian appointed since 1879.

"The Catholic Hour" first aired over NBC-television. This long-running series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men and aired through August 1970.

Death in London, England, of T. S. Eliot, the most influential English poet of the twentieth century, who had converted to Christianity and joined the Church of England.

Anosisye Mwansombelo Jongo is elected bishop in Tanzania's Moravian Church after years of leadership, often despite serious opposition. He had been the first black African elected by the Moravians as a superintendent in the province of Southern Tanzania.