Historical Writings

James Renwick and about 200 men meet in Sanquhar, Scotland, where they will draft the Second Sanquhar Declaration which claims that King James II of England (VII of Scotland) is a murderer and an idolater and that acts of Parliament and Scottish church law make him ineligible to hold the kingship because he is a Catholic.

Roman Catholic bishop John Carroll of Baltimore issues a pastoral letter, the first document of its sort in the United States. Among its main themes is a call for Christian education.

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.'

Death at Newhaven, Connecticut, of Noah Webster, author of an American speller and other works, including a dictionary, that distinguished American English from British. He had been a conservative in politics and religion.

Samuel Clement Perry joins the Church of God, Cleveland, where he will do notable work before his exclusion.

Death in Aberdeen, Scotland, of Alfred Adler, a Jewish convert to Christianity who had gained fame as a neurologist and psychiatrist. He considered man's "will to power" a primary motivator in human behavior and also addressed the role of inferiority feelings.

Death in Sydney, Australia, of missionary leader, Florence Selina Harriett Young.

A communist party congress in Czechoslavkia declares its right to educate children in atheistic Leninism without regard for their parents' religious values.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill which added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.

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).