1558 - Dutch Anabaptist reformer Menno Simons, 62, confessed in a letter: 'There is nothing upon earth my heart loves more than it does the church.'
1646 - The Cambridge Synod of Congregational Churches convened in Mass. It formulated the 'Cambridge Platform,' outlining the proper polity (religious government) to be followed by the New England Congregational churches.
1803 - In Boston, the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was instituted. It was the first tract society established in North America.
1836 - A wagon train of Presbyterian missionaries, led by pioneer missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman, reached the site of modern Walla Walla, WA. Whitman's wife Narcissa became the first white woman to cross the North American continent.
1985 - The HQ of Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry moved to its present location in Bellmawr, NJ. Founded in 1938 by Victor Buksbazen, F.I.G.M. works through evangelism and Bible distribution.
© 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church
