1692 - Bridget Bishop became the first person hanged for witchcraft, during the ordeal known to history as the 'Salem Witch Trials.' In all, 20 people died before theological jurisprudence was restored in this isolated Puritan community in Massachusetts.
1850 - The American Bible Union was founded, organized by church leaders who had broken from the American and Foreign Bible Society.
1854 - Eventually to become the first African- American Roman Catholic bishop, James Augustine Healy, 24, was ordained a priest in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
1925 - The United Church of Canada was formed, uniting both the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations of Canada. The merger also took in 3,000 independent Canadian Congregational churches.
1983 - The Presbyterian Church (USA) was formed in Atlanta, through a reunification of the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA) and the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS).
© 1987-2010, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
