Historical Writings

The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)

The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)

Death in Canterbury, Kent, England, of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor of England. He had been a violent persecutor of the Lollards, Wycliffe’s reform followers.

Death of Miles Coverdale, 80, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535). Coverdale was also editor of the Great Bible of 1539.

(or 1671) Death in Boston, Massachusetts, of Charles Chauncy, eighteen years the president of Harvard College. A Congregational clergyman, his insistance on full immersion for baptism had been controversial in New England.

Death in Bergen, Norway, of Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, once highly regarded for her Christian verses, which included an evening and a morning hymn.

Death in Germantown, Pennsylvania, of Alexander Mack, leader of America’s German Baptists.

Congregational missionaries Adoniram Judson, 23, and his wife Ann, 22, first sailed from New England to Calcutta, India. (Judson eventually concentrated his labors in Burma.)

Death of Elizabeth Clephane, 39, an orphaned Scottish poet who left the Church with two hauntingly beautiful hymns: "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" and "The Ninety and Nine." (All of Clephane's poetry was published posthumously.)

Death in Toronto, Canada, of Methodist minister Egerton Ryerson who had been a notabale educator in Canada. Although most of his reforms and innovations had high merit, his policies for the education of native Americans will be censured by future generations.

Death of Xi Shengmo. After years of bondage to opium, he had become a Christian and the Holy Spirit freed him after an agonizing battle. He then adopted his last name which meant "conqueror of demons." He went on to establish fifty opium refuges in four provinces where prayer was a major factor in treatment of the addicts. Many became Christians and applied his methods to other addicts.

Presidential Executive Order 9066 began placing 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (of which over 2/3 were American-born citizens) into ten "relocation centers" for the duration of WWII. During confinement within the armed, barbed-wire surroundings, however, prayer meetings, Bible studies and worship services were held.

Father Butrus Sowmy conveys the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls to American John Trever, whom he had contacted the day before. Trever requests permission to photograph them and sends the photographs to famed archaeologist William Albright, who will confirm the value of the manuscripts.

Death of evangelist Lionel Bale Fletcher in Sydney, Australia.