Historical Writings

The armies of the First Crusade defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ascalon (an historic Palestinian city on the Mediterranean), one month after they had captured Jerusalem.

Martyrdom of Thomas Bilney, who is burned at the stake for holding mildly Protestant views. He dies exclaiming "Jesus," and "I believe!" Authority for the date: Encyclopedia Americana.

Death of Blaise Pascal, French scientist and Christian apologist, famous for his apologetics and his argument that it makes more sense to wager on the existence of God than against him. Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

Death at Caen, France, of John Eudes, priest, founder of a work to reclaim fallen women and founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary to train priests and conduct missionary work. Authority for the date: Catholic Encyclopedia.

Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord's help, than when we are most sensible that we can donothing without Him.'

One thousand delegates from fifty different evangelical sects throughout the world meet in London. Among the questions that this Evangelical Alliance takes up are whether or not fellowship should be held with slaveholders. Americans insist that it should, and their views prevail. Authority for the date: Chesnutt, Charles Waddell. Frederick Douglass.

Death of Gotthold Heinrich Loeber, Lutheran pioneer, who helped form the Missouri Synod. Authority for the date: http://records.ancestry.com/Gotthold_Heinrich_Loeber_records.ashx?pid=86910945

W. J. David leads a revival program in Lagos, Nigeria, that runs until October 7, 1883. In it Adeline Adeotan Sikuade Agbebi and her husband Vincent David Omojola will be converted. Vincent will become a pastor and Adeline will become an educator and a founder the Women Missionary Union of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, serving as its first head. Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

The Christian Union was founded by Baptist clergyman Richard G. Spurling (1858-1935) in Monroe County, Tennessee. In 1923, this pentecostal denomination changed its name to the Church of God. Headquartered today in Cleveland, Tennessee, its current membership is nearly 500,000.

Death of Arthur Samuel Peake, English Bible scholar, who had been the first Rylands professor of biblical exegesis at Manchester University and the first dean of its theological faculty. Authority for the date: International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians.

English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink wrote in a letter: 'It is not words which God pays attention to, but heart-groans and tears!'

Israel's parliament conferred Israeli citizenship posthumously on all Jews killed by the Nazis during the years of the Holocaust (1933-45) in Europe.