1607 - In Virginia, on the first Sunday after the arrival of the Jamestown Expedition, Anglican priest Robert Hunt, 39, held the first Anglican service in the New World. Named chaplain of the expedition to Jamestown, Hunt was also the first Anglican priest to come to America.
1932 - Death of John Hughes, 59, Welsh rail official and church worker. During his life, Hughes composed a number of hymns, including CWM RHONDDA, to which the Church today still sings "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah."
1948 - After nineteen centuries of enforced exile, the Jewish people regained their homeland when the State of Israel was formally proclaimed in Tel Aviv. On this same date, the U.S. became the first world nation to recognize the newly-refounded state of Israel.
1950 - American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'To believe is to act as though a thing were so. Merely saying a thing is so is no proof of my believing it.'
1974 - In the Anglican Church in England, the Rev. F. Donald Coggan, 64, was named the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury by Queen Elizabeth II, succeeding former Archbishop Michael Ramsey.
© 1987-2009, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
