1563 - The Edict of Amboise granted a limited amount of freedom to French Protestants, thereby ending the First Huguenot War.
1641 - A General Court ended which declared the Colony of Rhode Island a democracy. The Court also adopted a constitution granting religious freedom to all its citizens.
1937 - Pius XI declared in the encyclical "Divini redemptoris": 'There would be neither Socialism nor Communism today if the rulers of the nations had not scorned the teachings and material warnings of the Church.'
1944 - German Lutheran pastor and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter: 'We can have abundant life, even though many wishes remain unfulfilled.'
1987 - Jim Bakker, 48, stepped down as head of the PTL ministry amid disclosures of a 1980 sexual liaison with church secretary Jessica Hahn.
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
