Historical Writings

The Hagia Sophia, a cathedral designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, is consecrated by Patriarch Menas in Constantinople. The innovative design is not only original but beautiful.

Death of Ferdinand I, "the Great," king of Castile and León. He had maneuvered shrewdly to increase his territory and gain influence over some of Spain’s Muslim occupiers, whom he had forced to pay tribute.

Death in Warwick, England, of Thomas Cartwright, a Puritan author, educator, controversialist, and preacher who had frequently attacked practices of the Church of England as unbliblical, especially its manner of governance and its selection and appointment of clergy.

Japanese rebels, among whom are many Christians, defeat a large samurai force dispatched by the governor of Nagasaki. Early the following year, shogunate warriors will defeat the rebels and force them to retreat to Shimabara. Beseiged there, they will succumb after a lengthy and valorous defense.

English founder of Methodism, John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'God...frequently...makes young men and women wiser than the aged, and gives to many, in a very short time, a closer and deeper communion with himself than others attain in a long course of years.'

In Baltimore, at its first General Conference held this side of the Atlantic, Francis Asbury, 39, was ordained the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America.

George Duffield Jr. is ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in New York. He will be remembered as an eminent hymnwriter. His most famous hymn will be "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus."

Friederich A. Craemer, operating a Lutheran mission in Michigan, baptizes his first Chippewa converts.

Death of Josiah Conder, a journalist and editor who wrote scholarly Christian books and produced a popular Congregational hymnal. Among his own hymns were "Day by day the manna fell," "How shall I follow Him I serve?" and "The Lord is King! Lift up Thy Voice."

American Christian temperance leader Carry Nation, 53, raided and wrecked her first saloon in Medicine Lodge, KA. She went on similar rampages in Wichita and Topeka, and in other cities in Iowa and Illinois as well.

Death of hymnwriter Cyrus Nusbaum in Wichita, Kansas. His most famous hymn begins "Would you live for Jesus and be always be pure and good..."

The film "The Song of Bernadette" was released by 20th Century Fox. It told the true story of 14-year-old French Catholic peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who experienced 18 visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France in 1858.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Evangelical Theological Society was organized. A conservative fellowship of North American theologians and Bible scholars, ETS promotes theological discussion and exploration within the context of a firm belief in the truthfulness of the Bible.