Historical Writings

Death of Lady Godgifu (Godiva) Buckingham, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman and Christian, known for founding several monasteries. She had allegedly ridden through town naked (after requesting her people to close their doors and cover their windows) because it was the only way her husband would agree to relieve oppressive taxes on his people.

The Franciscans (founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi) first arrived in England. They were originally called "Grey Friars" because of their gray habits. (The habit worn by modern Franciscans is brown.)

Carlo Spinola, an Italian Jesuit, is roasted alive for his faith at Nagasaki.

The Collegiate School at New Haven, CT, changed its name to Yale. (Congregationalists, unhappy with an increasing religious liberalism at Harvard, had founded Yale, the third oldest college in America, in 1701.)

English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Pain, if patiently endured, and sanctified to us, is a great purifier of our corrupted nature.'

Blount College -- the first American nondenominational institution of higher learning -- was established in Knoxville. (It later became the University of Tennessee.)

Birth of Canadian hymnwriter Joseph Scriven. The accidental drowning of his bride-to-be the night before their wedding led to a life of depression; yet he also authored the hymn of comfort, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

Patrick Augustine Feehan is appointed first Catholic archbishop of Chicago.

Death in Red Bank, New Jersey, of Alexander Crummell, an African-American priest of the Episcopal Church who labored all his life to obtain equality for African Americans. He will be remembered in the Episcopal Church calendar.

The Communists execute the Orthodox priest Nicholas Ponomarev in Verkhoturye by shooting him.

Romania's first Pentecostal congregation opens.

Death of Burnett Hillman Streeter, biblical scholar. His 1924 book The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins, had argued that differences between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John show there were four written sources behind the four gospels. Although his conclusions were not widely accepted, his thorough research had become a major resource for Bible scholars.

Kornelius Isaak, a Mennonite missionary, is wounded in Paraguay by a Morro Indian arrow, and dies the next day.

Burial of Joseph Adegbola Ishola Adekunle who had been a leader in Nigerian Baptist churches.