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.
Source: William D. Blake. Almanac
of the Christian Church, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987. Additional
information supplied by the author. Contact via E-mail: William D. Blake. (pilgrimwb@aol.com)