1725 - English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'I can't think that when God sent us into the world He had irreversibly decreed that we should be perpetually miserable in it.'
1818 - Former president Thomas Jefferson set forth in a letter to a Jewish journalist his opinion of religious intolerance: 'Your sect by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practised by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religions, as they do our civil rights, by putting all on equal footing. But more remains to be done.'
1898 - In Italy, the Shroud of Turin was first photographed by Secundo Pia in Turin's Cathedral, where it had rested for 320 years.
1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill which added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
1958 - The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. merged with the Presbyterian Church of North America to form the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA).
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
