1665 - New York's English Deputies approved a new legal code, which guaranteed all Protestants the right to practice their religious observances unhindered. (There were currently a host of Protestant groups thriving within this now-English colony, acquired only seven months earlier from the Dutch.)
1738 - English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in his journal: 'Suffering times are a Christian's best improving times; for they break the will, wean us from the creature, prove the heart.'
1845 - Wittenberg College was chartered in Springfield, Ohio, under Lutheran auspices.
1860 - Birth of H. Frances Davidson, pioneer missionary. In 1892 she became the first woman from the Brethren in Christ Church to earn an M.A. degree, and in 1897 became one of her denomination's first missionaries to travel to the African continent.
1923 - Death of Mary Ann Thomson, 89, American hymnwriter. Among her most enduring contributions to the Church were the lyrics to "O Zion, Haste, Thy Mission High Fulfilling," which she wrote at age 34.
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church