1518 - Pope Leo X imposed silence on the Augustinian monks.
1744 - Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd explained in a tract: 'God designs that those whom He sanctifies...shall tarry awhile in this present evil world, that their own experience of temptations may teach them how great the deliverance is, which God has wrought for them.'
1864 - In Columbus, Ohio, a fellowship of independent Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and United Brethren churches organized itself into a separate Protestant denomination known as the Christian Union.
1943 - The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester was torpedoed by a German sub and went down with a loss of 600 lives. As it sank, four chaplains gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby also perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day."
1985 - In South Africa, Desmond Tutu, 53, became Johannesburg's first black Anglican bishop.
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
