4004 - (BC) According to the sacred timeline worked out by Archbishop James Ussher, 73, "the heavens and the earth" were created on this date at 9:00 a.m. (GMT). Ussher's "Chronologies of he Old and New Testaments" was first published 1650-54.
1239 - In England, the main cathedral at Wells (begun c.1186) was consecrated. The most striking interior feature of the cathedral are the inverted arches (14th century) by which the piers of the tower are strengthened.
1385 - In Germany, the University of Heidelberg was founded under Pope Urban VI as a college of the Cistercian order. (Among its faculties today are theology, law, medicine and philosophy.)
1857 - Delegates from eight states met in Nashville and organized the Southern Baptist Sunday School Union. The organization proved short-lived, when it was nullified by the onset of the American Civil War.
1871 - Birth of Edgar J. Goodspeed, American Greek N.T. scholar. He taught at the University of Chicago 1898-1937. In 1931, he co-authored with JMP Smith "The Bible: An American Translation," better known today as "Smith and Goodspeed."
© 1987-2009, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
