Historical Writings

(traditional date) Death in Germany of Anskar, an early English or Irish missionary who had tried repeatedly to evangelize Scandinavia.

Mongols surround the city of Vladimir, whose citizens, including Orthodox Christians, vow to resist to the last man to defend God's churches. The city will fall on the fourteenth of that same month.

Death in London of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose political struggles with powerful prelates led him to support the religious reformer John Wycliffe.

Death in Mainz, Germany, of Johannes Gutenberg, a developer of movable type, which will become a powerful factor in the spread of the Protestant Reformation.

Pope Leo X imposed silence on the Augustinian monks.

John Wesley arrives in London, having fled the colony of Georgia, where his ministry had been a serious failure.

Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd explained in a tract: 'God designs that those whom He sanctifies...shall tarry awhile in this present evil world, that their own experience of temptations may teach them how great the deliverance is, which God has wrought for them.'

The British House of Lords rules against the Corporation of London which, to raise money, had established heavy fines for anyone refusing to stand for office if nominated, and then nominated many dissenters, knowing that they could not take the oath required under the Test Act.

Richard Johnson, first Christian cleric appointed to Australia, preaches his first sermon in that country.

Death in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, of George Crabbe, a Church of England vicar and notable poet.

In Columbus, Ohio, a fellowship of independent Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and United Brethren churches organized itself into a separate Protestant denomination known as the Christian Union.

The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester was torpedoed by a German sub and went down with a loss of 600 lives. As it sank, four chaplains gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby also perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day."

In South Africa, Desmond Tutu, 53, became Johannesburg's first black Anglican bishop.

Execution in Texas of Karla Faye Tucker, a murderess, who converted to Christianity on death row and died praising Jesus. Movies and documentaries will be made about her life.

The Islamic city council of Demre, Turkey (formerly the Christian city, Myra), votes to replace the town's traditional bronze statue of St. Nicholas of Myra with an effigy of a fat man with a red fur suit.