1561 - The Colloquy of Poissy convened near Paris. Comprised of both French Catholic prelates and reformed Protestant theologians led by Theodore Beza, the council led to a 1562 edict offering a greater measure of freedom to French Protestants.
1598 - A celebration was held for the newly completed Catholic church at San Juan de los Caballeros - the first church erected in (what is today the state of) New Mexico. The town, founded this year by Juan de Onate, was a former Indian pueblo in the Chama River Valley.
1833 - The first tracts of the Oxford Movement (which sought to purify the English Church) were released. The series was forced to close in 1841, however, when Tract 90 was published, because it interpreted Anglicanism's "Thirty-Nine Articles" in too strong of a Roman Catholic direction.
1863 - Dwight Moody's future song evangelist, Ira D. Sankey, 23, married Fanny Edwards, daughter of a Pennsylvania State Senator. Their marriage of 45 years bore two sons, one of whom - Ira H. Sankey - became a songwriter like his father.
1952 - The religious program 'This is the Life' premiered on Dumont (later ABC) television. This long-running series was produced under the auspices of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
