Historical Writings

Following a six-month siege, Jerusalem surrendered to the 60,000 troops of Titus' Roman army. Over a million Jewish citizens perished in the siege and, following the city's capture, another 97,000 were sold into slavery.

The parish of St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by Father Don Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendozo Grajales, chaplain to the conquering Spanish forces. It became the first and oldest Roman Catholic parish established in America.

Harvard College (later University) was founded by the Massachusetts Puritans at New Towne. It was the first institution of higher learning established in North America, and was originally founded to train future ministers.

Lutheran missionary Johann Philipp Fabricius arrives in India where he will work among the Tamil people, revising the Tamil Bible and publishing a hymnbook.

Oxford Movement leader, John Henry Newman, 44, resigned from the Church of England -- convinced that it had severed itself from its ancient episcopal moorings and true apostolic succession -- and became a Roman Catholic.

Thérèse of Lisieux pronounces her vows to become a Carmelite nun.

Pope Pius X announces that modernism is heresy.

Pius XI issued the encyclical "Rerum Orientalium," promoting study of the history, doctrine and liturgy of Eastern Orthodoxy. He recommended that priests apply themselves to special studies at the Oriental Institute in Rome, founded in 1917 by Benedict XV.

The Russian Orthodox Church convenes a council that elects Sergius as Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. Because of Communist suppression, the church had been without a patriarch for many years. Needing church support because of the war with Hitler, Stalin had authorized the council, which will also reopen seminaries.

C. S. Lewis appears on the cover of Time magazine.

Shanghai's Bishop Ignatius Kung, forty priests, and three hundred lay leaders in the Chinese church are arrested over the course of two days.

Release from Iranian prison of Youcef Nadarkhani, originally accused of apostasy for his own conversion from Islam to Christianity; following international outcry, he is charged instead with evangelizing Muslims.