Historical Writings

The remains of Saint Michael, Prince of Tver (Russia), martyred by a Khan, are placed in a church he had built in honor of the Transfiguration.

Anabaptist leader and evangelist George Blaurock is burned to death for "heresy" in Hapsburg, Germany. He had established congregations in the Austrian Tyrol till caught.

The Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, with Pilgrims aboard.

The Catholic Church places Blaise Pascal’s Provincial Letters on the Index of Prohibited Books. The Letters defended Jansenism, a Catholic reform movement, against Jesuit opponents.

Death at Bath, England, of Bishop Edmund Gibson, who had produced a definitive and scholarly work on English ecclesiastical law, Corpus Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani.

Baptism of Pran Krishna, a recent convert from Hinduism. About this time, he writes a hymn that begins, "Being in great fear, I came and sat at your feet." He will eventually be driven from his village and he, his wife, and children will have cow dung hurled in their faces. He becomes a successful evangelist throughout India.

Colonial American missionary Adoniram Judson, 24, en route to the mission field, converted from Congregationalism to become a Baptist. He later translated the Bible into Burmese and authored a Burmese dictionary (1849).

Death in Combaconum, India, of Pastor Visoowasanaden, whose integrity, meekness, and knowledge of Scripture won many of his countrymen to follow Christ.

Three preachers collapse from fatigue, unable to cope with the overwhelming number of inquirers in a Glasgow revival.

Pius X issued the encyclical "Pascendi dominici gregis," in which he condemned the "modernist" movement within the various branches of Christendom. The document also established councils to combat these "modern errors."

The movie "Boys Town" was first released by MGM studios. Starring Spencer Tracy, the award-winning film depicted the founding of the famous vocational institution in Nebraska in 1917 by parish priest Father Edward J. Flanagan, 31.

The National Christian Council of Japan organized its churches into a single body, with complete autonomy from Western church control. The single Protestant structure thus formed was named the United Church of Christ in Japan.

Muslims in Instanbul riot against Christians and Greeks, gutting or sacking sixty of the city's eighty Christian churches.

Anna-Greta Stjarne, thirty-two year-old missionary, is shot and killed by bandits as she rides in a car in Ethiopia. Her funeral will be held four days later.

Latin American bishops gathered in Medellín, Colombia, issue a document titled "Justice," which calls for a more equitable distribution of goods, decrying both Marxism and capitalism, the former because of its totalitarianist tendencies, the latter because it puts profits above people.

American Presbyterian missionary Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'Only the one who has been hurt can bring healing. The other person cannot. It is the one who has been hurt who has to be willing to be hurt again to show love, if there is to be hope that healing will come.'