Historical Writings

Muslims near Bombay challenge Franciscan Thomas of Tolentino to say what he thinks of Muhammad. When he responds that "Muhammad is the son of perdition and has his place in hell with the devil his father..." they kill him and his companions, who will become known as the Four Martyrs of Tana. Jordanus of Severac survives to bury them and to conduct mission work in India for about ten years.

A trial by fire is arranged between Fra Domenico, one of Girolamo Savonarola's followers, and another monk. When Savonarola will not allow Fra Domenico to undertake the ordeal, he loses his influence in Florence.

Spanish founder of the Jesuits Francis Xavier, 35, and three friends set sail from Lisbon, Portugal for Goa. They became the first Roman Catholic missionaries to travel to India.

Death in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany, of Friedrich Myconius, an associate of Martin Luther who had brought the Reformation to Thuringia and labored throughout Germany and Switzerland.

John Hooper declines the bishopric of Gloucester because he does not believe it is right for him to don the required vestments. He will be placed under house arrest and finally actually imprisoned, after which he will relent and accept consecration. During the persecutions under Mary Tudor, he will be burned to death as a heretic.

Jonas Michaelius, 51, arrived in New Amsterdam (New York City), the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church to come to America.

James Hackman, curate of Wiverton, Norfolk, shoots and kills Martha Reay, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, outside a London theater. Reay, considerably older than Hackman, seems to have encouraged his attentions because she desired the respectability of marriage which the earl would not give her. Hackman had studied to become a clergyman so that he could support her, but Reay, having borne the earl several children, in the end chose not to leave him. Hackman will be hanged shortly afterward, rejecting an offer of assistance from the earl.

Premier of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Solemn Mass) in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Death in Calcutta from cholera of Mahendra Lal Basak, a promising minister and educator who had given up caste, family, and friends to follow Christ.

Death of Abigail Bradley Hyde in Andover, Massachusetts. She had written a number of hymns including "Dear Savior, if These Lambs Should Stray."

Birth of C. H. Dodd, English clergyman and Bible scholar. Dodd became the most influential British New Testament scholar of the mid-20th century, and penned over a dozen books, including "The Parables of the Kingdom" (1934).

Deaconess Elizabeth Fedde, working in New York City, writes in her diary, “A terrible day. Board meeting, and I have been left in a powerless position. This is the hardest time I have had in America, and the appeal for help is in danger. God be merciful! I have the whole board against me and everything is wrong and I wish I were dead. God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

Giuseppi Verdi’s Te Deum is first performed, in a concert by the Paris Opera, with two other religious compositions from his Quattro pezzi sacri. Allegedly he will ask to be buried with this piece under his head.

Death in California of John Norton Loughborough, a leader in the early Seventh-day Adventist movement, and its first historian.

"German Christians" apply the Nazis' Aryan clause to the church, effectively barring Jews (and individuals of Jewish descent) from holding church offices.

Japanese soldiers shoot Herman Liu in front of his home where he is waiting for a bus with his son. Liu, educated in the West, had become the first Chinese president of the Baptist University of Shanghai. After Japanese occupation, he had resisted them and helped war refugees. Urged by friends to flee he had replied, “I will not desert.”

Formation of the National Association of Evangelicals at Hotel Coronado in St. Louis Missouri. Rev. J. Elwin Wright delivers the opening address of a three-day conference. Evangelicals are there to find common ground to fight against evil forces, he says, and to seek ways to fight for Christ aggressively and unitedly.

Repose (death) of Savvas the New, patron saint of the Greek island Kalymnos. An ascetic, he had been priest and spiritual father of the nuns of the Convent of All Saints but was also known for painting icons.

The Episcopal Church consecrates three Filipino bishops, thus extending apostolic succession to the Philippine Independent Church.

Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjld, 47, was elected Secretary General of the United Nations. Hammarskjld endeared himself to Christians, after his death in 1961, through the 1964 publication of his spiritual journal, "Markings."

In a letter penned during his 83rd and final year of life, Karl Barth wrote: 'How one learns to be thankful for each day on which one can still do something.'

Death in Nineveh, New York, of Johnny Hart, following a stroke. He had created the popular comic strip B.C. (featuring Stone Age characters) through which he sometimes expressed evangelical Christian beliefs after his conversion.