Historical Writings

Pope Vitalian ordains Theodore of Tarsus as Archbishop of Canterbury. Well-educated and diplomatic, Theodore will establish a school, defuse animosity between Christians of the Celtic and Roman traditions, and set diocesean boundaries throughout England.

Election of Pope Stephen III after the sudden death of Stephen II. He will become the first papal monarch when Pepin (King of the Franks) places Ravenna under his control.

Death of Ludger, a missionary to the Frisians and founder of Munster. He had been notable for his gentleness, but was also courageous - as evidenced by his refusing to respond to messengers from Charlemagne until he completed his devotions, defending his action to the king by saying, "God is to be preferred to you O King and to all men."

The town council of Gorlitz summons Jacob Boehme to give an account of some of his writings that are considered heretical.

An ordinance published in Paris allows Francois Laval to form a seminary in Canada that he has long sought. After his death it will become Laval University and train missionaries for Africa and other countries where French is spoken.

A bullet is fired into the house where Richard Baxter is preaching, but it whizzes past him, narrowly missing the head of a sister-in-law.

Joseph Smith, 24, first published "The Book of Mormon." Having derived it from golden plates he had discovered with the aid of the angel Moroni, Smith maintained that the plates were written in "Reformed Egyptian" which he had translated with the aid of "Urim and Thummim" two stones hrough which he had viewed the writings.

Death of Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the first African-American bishop in America.

Birth of George Smith, famed English Assyriologist. During several expeditions to the site of ancient Nineveh, (1873Â74), Smith unearthed over 3,000 cuneiform tablets, including one which told the story of an ancient deluge, similar to Noah's Flood.

Death in Indiana of Robert Richford Roberts who for forty years had served as a Methodist frontier circuit rider and bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, working primarily in Indiana.

Birth of Uchimura Kanzo in Edo, Japan. He will convert to Christianity, become an evangelist and pacifist, found the "non-church" movement, and write the book How I Became a Christian.

Hymnwriter Joseph H. Gilmore, 27, a professor of Hebrew at Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, penned the words to the enduring hymn, "He Leadeth Me."

The Orthodox priest Gregory Matveyevich Vysotsky is sentenced to death, accused of having contacts with foreigners for "counter-revolutionary purposes."

The Congregation of the Sacraments within the Catholic Church published a document instructing that a plate of silver or metal gilt be held under the chin of the communicant at the reception of the Holy Communion.

Dr. Basil W. Miller founded the Basil Miller Foundation in Altadena, CA. In 1959 its name was changed to World-Wide Missions.

Joan Andrews is arrested for unsuccessfully attempting to disconnect the electric cord of a suction machine in an abortuary in Pensacola, Florida. Because she will not promise to cease antiabortion activities, and will refuse to cooperate with what she considers an unjust court system, she will be sentenced to five years of imprisonment - double the maximum recommended by sentencing guidelines.

Joan Andrews is unexpectedly released early from a prison in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where she had been serving a sentence for anti-abortion activities. (This is not the same imprisonment as the 1986 entry on this page.) Up to this point, Joan had been arrested two hundred times for anti-abortion activities and for refusing to comply with rules of probation. She refused to comply because doing so would make it appear she agreed that she had done something wrong.