Historical Writings

Death in Bredon, Worcestershire, of John Prideaux, bishop of Worcester, a leading scholar at the time of the Puritan-Royalist conflict. His leaning toward the Royalists cost him his position, leaving him in poverty when the Puritans prevailed.

Robert Barclay petitions that prisoners of conscience be allowed to go overseas rather than remain sequestered in prisons.

The U.S. Army Chaplaincy was founded, making it the second oldest branch of thatservice, after the Infantry.

Pioneer Methodist bishop Francis Asbury remarked in his journal: 'My present modeof conduct is...to read about 100 pages a day; usually to pray in public five times aday.... If it were in my power, I would do a thousand times as much for such a gracious andblessed Master.'

Death of James Manning, who had been president of Rhode Island College and was well-known for his firm stand against the oppression Baptists suffered in Massachussets and Connecticut.

Death of William Wilberforce, who had done much to end slavery in British possessions.

Phoebe Palmer rocks her beloved eleven-month-old daughter Eliza to sleep and puts her to bed. Soon afterward, a careless helper has an accident with an oil lamp, severely burning the baby, who dies. In grief, Palmer will be driven to seek God's face as never before, becoming a leading voice of the American holiness movement.

After days of torture, three Chinese Catholic men are beheaded in Yaojiaguan, Guizhou Province. Joseph Zhang Wenlan, Paul Chen Changping, John Baptist Luo Tingyin. Martha Wang-Luo Mande, a Christian woman, who has followed the men to the execution ground, suffers the same fate.

Birth of Thomas O. Chisholm, American Methodist pastor, teacher, editor and poet.Of the 1,200 sacred verses he penned, one later became the popular hymn: 'Great Is ThyFaithfulness.'

Birth of Dag Hammarskj”ld, Swedish diplomat and Secretary-General of the U.N.(1953-61). His spiritual journal 'Markings' was published in 1964, three years after hisuntimely death in a plane crash.

Father Florentius Troitsky secretly buries in the parish cemetery the Orthodox priest Platon Gorgonievich Gornykh and two peasants whom the Soviets had executed by firing squad in the woods outside Pokrovskoye.

Death of missionary Robert A. Jaffrey, from dysentery, in a Japanese internment camp. He had led a major effort by the Christian and Missionary Alliance to evangelize China and Southeast Asia.

The first eleven women priests in the Episcopal Church were ordained inPhiladelphia's Church of the Advocate.

Burial of Titus Machingo Chondol, a pastor in the Church of Christ in Nigeria, noted for his efforts to evangelize and educate his people. He had planted several churches, formed a youth fellowship and a pastors' forum, and inspired several young men to enter the ministry.