Historical Writings

This is the earliest known year that Jesus' nativity was celebrated on December 25th, as mentioned in the Philocalian Calendar of A.D. 354. Jesus' birth was commemorated on January 6th in Greek Orthodoxy, although by the 400s most of the Eastern churches had accepted the Roman date.

(or as early as 496) King Clovis, who united Gaul and founded France, is baptized by St. Remigius in the Cathedral of Rheims with three thousand of his warriors. His wife Clotilda was instrumental in "converting" him, although his understanding was low and his change of character minimal.

Thousands of Anglo-Saxons are baptized by the missionary Augustine, an important date in the Christianization of Southern England.

Two years before his martyrdom, Bohemian reformer and martyr Jan Huss wrote in a letter: 'Rejoice, that the immortal God is born, so that mortal men may live through eternity.'

German reformer Martin Luther was recorded as saying: 'It is the most ungodly and dangerous business to abandon the certain and revealed will of God in order to search in to the hidden mysteries of God.'

Death of Peter Melius Juhász, a Hungarian reformer and religious writer. He had been active and prominent as bishop of the Calvinist Reformed Church in Transylvania, but also produced an early botanical and medicinal work in the Hungarian lanaguge.

The Dunkards (Baptists from Germany) held their first immersion service in America at Germantown (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.

Death in Alexandria, Virginia, of Baptist hymn writer Mary Ann Collier, author of the hymn "The Sun That Lights Yon Broad Blue Sky."

The first continental council of the Latin American Roman Catholic Church is convened. It issues 998 canons. Among its objects is a desire to check anti-Christian influences. Thirteen archbishops and forty-one bishops are present at this meeting in Rome.

Death in Athens of Apostolos Makrakis, who had often been embroiled with the Greek Orthodox Church but was popular with middle class Christians. He had considered himself chosen to liberate Byzantium from the Turks and to renovate the church. Not only had he preached controversial sermons on Christ throughout Greece, but he condemned Freemasonry, materialism, and the buying and selling of church positions. Local councils twice condemned him to prison.

Japanese evangelist Toyohiko Kagawa crosses the Higurashi Bridge to serve in the slums of Shinkawa. His most quoted saying is, "Theology is but an appendix to love, and an unreliable appendix!"

In Washington, D.C., during Calvin Coolidge's first Christmas as president, the first electrically-lit Christmas tree appeared in the White House.

Islamic terrorists bomb Nigerian churches in Madalla, Jos, Kano, Damaturu, and Gadaka, killing dozens of Christians during Christmas services.