1758 - The first Anglican service of worship to be held on Canadian soil was led by Rev. Robert Wolfall at Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island.
1784 - English clergyman Thomas Coke, 37, was consecrated, the first "bishop" of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by founder John Wesley. Coke afterward journeyed to America, where he and Francis Asbury oversaw Methodism in the Colonies.
1930 - While a missionary in the Philippines, American linguistic pioneer Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: 'God is always awaiting the chance to give us high days. We so seldom are in deep earnest about giving him his chance.'
1949 - English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.'
1973 - Death of J.R.R. Tolkien, 81, English Christian language scholar and novelist. His 1954-55 "Lord of the Rings" trilogy describes a war between good and evil in which evil is routed through courage and sacrifice.
© 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church
