1774 - English founder of Methodism, John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'God...frequently...makes young men and women wiser than the aged, and gives to many, in a very short time, a closer and deeper communion with himself than others attain in a long course of years.'
1784 - In Baltimore, at its first General Conference held this side of the Atlantic, Francis Asbury, 39, was ordained the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America.
1899 - American Christian temperance leader Carry Nation, 53, raided and wrecked her first saloon in Medicine Lodge, KA. She went on similar rampages in Wichita and Topeka, and in other cities in Iowa and Illinois as well.
1943 - The film "The Song of Bernadette" was released by 20th Century Fox. It told the true story of 14-year-old French Catholic peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who experienced 18 visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France in 1858.
1949 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Evangelical Theological Society was organized. A conservative fellowship of North American theologians and Bible scholars, ETS promotes theological discussion and exploration within the context of a firm belief in the truthfulness of the Bible.
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Copyright 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from 'Almanac of the Christian Church'
