1528: Bern, the strongest canton (territorial division) in southern Switzerland in its day, officially embraced the Protestant faith of Swiss reformers Ulrich Zwingli and John Oecolampadius.

     1546: Eleven days before his death, German reformer Martin Luther wrote in a letter to his wife Kate: 'I have a better Caretaker than you and all the angels. He it is who lies in a manger ...but at the same time sits at the right hand of God, the almighty Father. Therefore be at rest.'

     1832: Birth of Hannah Whitall Smith, American Quaker evangelist and devotional author. Her best-known writing was "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" (1875). It's still in print!

     1947: U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: 'We want to do right, and to be right; so start us in the right way, for Thou knowest that we are very hard to turn.'

     1869: Connecticut Congregational clergyman Samuel Wolcott, 56, upon returning home from a YMCA evangelistic service, penned the words to the missionary hymn, "Christ for the World We Sing."