Historical Writings

Death of Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne (an island in the North Sea), who had sought to preserve Celtic customs against Roman influence.

Pantheist philosopher and occult practitioner Giordano Bruno is burned alive by secular authorities to whom the Roman Inquisition hands him over after an eight year investigation and trial.

English revivalist George Whitefield advised in a letter: 'Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee."'

Methodist evangelist John Wesley becomes ill after preaching at Lambeth and will die on March 2nd.

In deciding the legal case "Terrett v. Taylor," the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an act of the Virginia Legislature which denied property rights to Protestant Episcopal churches in the state. The Court ruled that religious corporations, like other corporations, have rights to their property.

Birth of Edward Hopper, American Presbyterian clergyman. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me."

Levi Parsons arrives in Jerusalem, the first Protestant missionary to found a permanent mission in that city.

Representative John Quincy Adams comments in his diary on the overly-crowded conditions of the church that meets inside the Capitol building in Washington.

Billy Sunday, 27, baseball player-turned-preacher, made his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago. A strong fundamentalist, Sunday preached temperance and opposed scientific evolution. Over 100 million are estimated to have heard Sunday preach before his death in 1935.

Death of Frances Willard, a Methodist crusader for prohibition and women’s rights.

Death of John Nelson "Praying" Hyde, who had served as a missionary in India. His last words were, "Shout the victory of Jesus Christ!" He had recently undergone surgery for a malignant tumor of the brain.

Arrest of Dr. Kao, a Chinese Christian who had moved into the pagan city of Gan-djou to act as a Christian witness. Authorities are angry at him for exposing criminal activities in the city government. He will suffer in jail for many months.

Russian-born, Milwaukee-raised Golda Meir (nee Mabovitch [Myerson]), 70, was sworn in as Israel's first female prime minister. (She would hold the office for five embattled years.)

Death of Orestes (Chornock) of Agathonikeia, who had helped draw thirty-seven Catholic uniate parishes in North America back to Orthodoxy after years of conflict with Rome, which wanted to Latinize the churches and end priestly marriages. Orestes became the first ruling bishop of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese.

Death of Richard Wurmbrandt, Romanian-born founder of the Voice of the Martyrs and of ministries to Eastern Europe during the Communist era.

Two members of the Home Guard, bribed by a man who is furious that his wife converted to Christianity, assassinate Pastor Samson Neil Edirisinghe in Ampara, Sri Lanka, critically injuring Edirisinghe’s wife and wounding their two-year-old son.