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King John Affixes His Seal to the Magna Carta, an Inspiration for the US Constitution and Bill of Rights
"The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural address On June 15, 1215, in a field at Runnymede, King John affixed his seal to Magna Carta. Confronted by 40 rebellious barons, he consented ...
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The Chilling True Story Behind the Pied Piper of Hamelin
If you watch enough horror movies, sooner or later you’ll hear a character utter a variation on the phrase, “Every legend has a basis in fact.” Whether or not that statement is true, it is a fact that many of our most outlandish fables and fictions are rooted, at least ...
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Europe’s Black Death: Scientists say Fleas and Body Lice Spread by Humans, not Rats, were Responsible for Killing 50 million people
Every child learns at school that the Black Death was spread by rats which carried infected fleas. But the textbooks may need to be changed, as a new study suggests rodents have been unfairly blamed for the plague which killed millions of people across medieval Europe. The Black Death, it ...
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John Wycliffe, the First to Translate the Entire Bible into English, Dies
Wycliffe had been born in the hinterlands, on a sheep farm 200 miles from London. He left for Oxford University in 1346, but because of periodic eruptions of the Black Death, he was not able to earn his doctorate until 1372. Nonetheless, by then he was already considered Oxford's leading ...
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Joan of Arc Burnt at the Stake in Rouen’s Market Square in France
A young peasant girl who could neither read nor write, she followed the voices and visions from God and completely reversed the course of the 100 Year War (with England occupying most cities) and kept France from becoming a colony of England. Greatly celebrated by her own people she was ...
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Europe’s First Mass-produced Book – the Gutenberg Bible – was Printed with Movable Type in Mainz, Germany
Though it is not certain, many scholars agree that the Gutenberg Bible was published in Mainz, Germany on this day. The printing of the Gutenberg Latin language Bible was one of the most significant events that took place in human history. Prior to 1455, books were mainly in possessions of ...
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Italian Explorer Christopher Columbus Discovered the “New World” of the Americas on an Expedition ‘Led by Hand of God’
On several occasions Columbus gave credit to the Almighty. In writing to the Spanish leaders, he said, “Our Lord unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed. Who heard of my enterprise, called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed. But who can doubt ...
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The ‘Cosmographiae Introductio’ is Printed and Suggests the Name “America” for the New World after Explorer Americus Vespuccius (Latin)
AMERICA, we learn as schoolchildren, was named in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, for his discovery of the mainland of the New World. We tend not to question this lesson about the naming of America. By the time we are adults it lingers vaguely in most of us, along with images ...
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Michelangelo Unveiled the Unfinished Painted Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
All of Rome waited in expectation. For months, Michelangelo Buonarroti had worked in secret. Curiosity was aflame. What had he accomplished? Had he succeeded in transferring his skill as a sculptor to work with fresco (paint in plaster)? Pope Julius II, as impatient as ever, demanded that Michelangelo unveil the ...
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Erasmus Published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament
Erasmus, with the help of printer John Froben, published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but his own fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek, which he had managed to collate from a half-dozen partial old Greek New ...
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Protestant Reformation Begins: Martin Luther Nailed his 95 Theses to the Door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, Protesting the Sale of Indulgences and Other Practices
Sometime during October 31, 1517, the day before the Feast of All Saints, the 33-year-old Martin Luther posted theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The door functioned as a bulletin board for various announcements related to academic and church affairs. The theses were written in Latin ...
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Religious Reformer William Tyndale Burned at the Stake for Trying to Make the Bible Available to Common People
William Tyndale, 12 years after he left England, was led from prison to the stake where he was strangled, then his body burned. He had time to utter one last cry: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Tyndale had suffered for the cause “poverty, … exile out of my ...
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John Rogers is Burned to Death at the Stake in Smithfield, England. The First of Queen “Bloody” Mary’s Reign
John Rogers burned to death at a stake at Smithfield, England on this Monday morning, February 4,1555. Among the onlookers who encouraged him were his own children. What monstrous crime had earned him this cruel death? Born about 1500, Rogers was educated at Cambridge. He became a Catholic priest and ...
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The Oxford Martyrs: Bishops Ridley and Latimer Burned
In Oxford's St Giles there is a huge Victorian memorial to the Oxford Martyrs, close to the spot where they were burned at the stake. Today marks 460 years since the deaths of two of them, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, in 1555. The third, Thomas Cranmer, was burnt five ...
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The French Christian Huguenots in Florida set a day of Thanksgiving and offered the first Protestant prayer in North America
Commemorating the French Huguenots and their attempt at seeking religious freedom in America, Rep. Charles E. Bennett sponsored a bill on Sept. 21, 1950, to establish the Fort Caroline National Memorial. In 1989, he recited the history: “The 425th anniversary of the beginning settlements by Europeans … renamed from Fort ...
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St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
(Image) One Morning at the Gates of the Louvre, The day after St. Bartholomew’s Eve On this day commenced this diabolical act of sanguinary brutality. It was intended to destroy at one stroke the root of the Protestant tree, which had only before partially suffered in its branches. The king ...
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“Speech to the Troops at Tilbury” by Queen Elizabeth I of England
The Speech to the Troops at Tilbury was delivered on 9 August Old Style, 19 August New Style 1588 by Queen Elizabeth I of England to the land forces earlier assembled at Tilbury in Essex in preparation for repelling the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada. Prior to the speech ...
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Jamestown, the first Permanent British Settlement in America, is Established in Virginia
Funded by The Virginia Company of England, a group of Englishmen sail to the new, mysterious land, which they called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and begin a settlement. The company had given them rules that no one was to own private property and that they ...
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The Mayflower Compact is Signed by 41 English Colonists Onboard the Mayflower
The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower, was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. The compact was drafted to prevent dissent amongst Puritans and non-separatist Pilgrims who had landed at Plymouth a few days earlier. Before being ...
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The Mayflower Pilgrims Land and Found Plymouth Led by William Bradford
The Pilgrims fled from England to Holland in 1607. When Spain threatened to invade Holland, the Pilgrims decided to flee again. They considered sailing to Guyana in South America, as they heard of its tropical climate. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation: “Some … had thoughts and ...
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The First Thanksgiving Occurred between Sept 21st and Nov 9th, 1621
The unfamiliar American soil presented problems to the Pilgrims, but an Indian named Samoset greeted them and taught them how to fertilize best fertilize the soil. The results (months later) were spectacular, and the Pilgrims had much to be thankful for in the new land. About 100 Indians were invited ...
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The Second Thanksgiving: Governor Bradford Proclaims November 29 a Day of Thanksgiving
In 1623, a period of drought was answered by colonists with a proclamation of prayer and fasting. This prayer and fasting was changed to another thanksgiving celebration when rains came during the prayers. Later that year, Governor Bradford proclaimed November 29 as a time for pilgrims to gather and give ...
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The ‘Petition of Right’ Approved by King Charles I in England
The Petition of Right (see document) is a statement of the objectives of the 1628 English legal reform movement that led to the Civil War and deposing of Charles I in 1649. One of England's most famous Constitutional documents, it expresses many of the ideals that later led to the ...
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Galileo Convicted of Heresy for Teaching the Heliocentric System of the Earth Revolving Around the Sun
Despite the considerable evidence that the Bible provided the necessary intellectual basis for science, atheists often claim that, historically, science and religion have been at war. For centuries, they say, the church opposed the advancement of science and human progress in general. When asked for evidence in support of this ...
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Rev. John Lothropp Arrives in Boston, Massachusetts
John Lathrop was born December 20, 1584 in Etton, Yorkshire, England. It is said the ancestral home of the Lathrop family is Lowthrope, England. He was baptized in Etton, Yorkshire England December 20, 1584 and died in Barnstable, Mass November 8, 1653. The name was sometimes written Lathrop, other times Lothrop ...
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Harvard College is Founded as a Religious School to Train Clergy in the Christian Faith
Only eighteen years after the Pilgrims landed in the New World, Harvard College, the first of the Ivy League schools, was established for the sake of educating the clergy and raising up a Christian academic institution to meet the needs of perpetuating the Christian faith. All of the Ivy League ...
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John Lilburne was Arrested for Printing and Circulating ‘Unlicensed Books’ Critical of the King Charles I’s Monarchy
In 1638, John Lilburne was arrested upon his return from Holland and put on secret trial by the Star Chamber of Charles I. His crime? The writing and distribution of seditious pamphlets that skewered the legitimacy of the monarchy and challenged the primacy of the high prelates of the Church ...
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Massachusetts Passes the First Education Law
Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The Massachusetts School Laws were three legislative acts of 1642, 1647 and 1648 enacted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with he most famous by far, the law of 1647, also ...
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King Charles Delivers the ‘Answer to the Nineteen Propositions’ to Parliament
Two of Charles I advisers drafted and persuaded the king to issue a document, His Majesty’s Answer to the Nineteen Propositions of Both Houses of Parliament, in which the king, eager to dismiss his image as a monarch, declared that England was a mixed government and not a condescending monarchy ...
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John Winthrop gave his ‘Little Speech On Liberty’
In 1645, while he was deputy-governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop and his fellow-magistrates had interfered in a local election of a militia officer. When the dispute flared into a war of words, the magistrates bound over some of the dissidents to the next court and summoned others to appear. In ...
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Oliver Cromwell and the Beheading of King Charles I – Financed by the Jewish Bankers
JEWISH BANKERS FROM AMSTERDAM led by the Jewish financier and army contractor of Cromwell’s New Model Army, Fernandez Carvajal and assisted by Portuguese Ambassador De Souza, a Marano (secret Jew), saw an opportunity to exploit in the civil unrest led by Oliver Cromwell in 1643. A stable Christian society of ...
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Johnson v. Parker: Black Slave Owner Becomes First Legal Slave Owner in America After Winning Suit to Keep Parker, also Black, as His Slave for Life
Anthony Johnson (AD 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia. Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working ...
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The First Thanksgiving Proclamation in Charlestown, MA
On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unamimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving, our ...
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While in Prison for Preaching without a license from the Government, John Bunyon Publishes “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” a World’s Best Seller for Hundreds of Years.
The English Civil War took place 1642 to 1651 between Royalist Anglican supporters of King Charles I and the Puritan Parliamentarian supporters led by Lord Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. The Puritans won, and Oliver Cromwell had Charles I beheaded. Anglican ministers were demoted, including Rev. Lawrence Washington, the great-great-grandfather of ...
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Britain’s King Charles II ratifies Habeas Corpus Act allowing Prisoners right to be imprisoned to be examined by a court
The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is an Act of Parliament in England (31 Cha. 2 c. 2) during the reign of King Charles II. It was passed by what became known as the Habeas Corpus Parliament to define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, which required a ...
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1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery
Slavery is not simply a historical phenomenon.. It persists to this day in modern forms, such as trafficking. Quakers have opposed it from very early on and still do. In the first few years after the Quaker movement began in 1652, slavery would have been outside the experience of most ...
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A Secret Society called The Knights of the Apocalypse is Established in Italy Supposedly to Protect the Catholic Church from the Antichrist
In true secret society form, there isn’t a whole lot out there on the Knights of the Apocalypse – but what we do know is thoroughly compelling. The arcane group was established in Italy in 1693 by Augustine Gabrino, the son of a merchant. The purpose of the society was supposedly to protect the Catholic ...
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The Bank of England is Formed by Royal Charter – later to be Purchased for Pennies on the Dollar After a Rothschild Financial Coup
For purposes of a mainstream account, the official site of the Bank of England provides a flowery version about the background and purported success of the scheme proposed by “William Paterson, envisaged a loan of £1,200,000 to the Government, in return for which the subscribers would be incorporated as the ...
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“The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial” is Published by Judge Samuel Sewall (One of Jefferson’s Sources for an Early Draft of the Constitution)
One of the overlooked sources for Jefferson’s early draft was a now largely forgotten pamphlet written by Judge Samuel Sewall in 1700 titled , “The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial.” It is a remarkable document, one of the earliest antislavery declarations published in the American colonies. It’s very much a ...
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Yale Founded to Further Christianity by Ministers Unhappy with the Liberalism at Harvard
It may come as surprise that when Yale University was founded on this day, October 16, 1701, it was by Congregationalist ministers unhappy with the growing liberalism at Harvard. It wasn't called Yale then, of course, but rather the Collegiate School. The ministers donated forty books and declared their objective, ...
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The Modern Era of Freemasonry Begins when Four Freemasonic Lodges in London United into One Grand Lodge
On June 24, 1717, the four freemasonic lodges in London were united into a Grand Lodge (sometimes called the Grand Mother Lodge) by three members who met at the Apple Tree Tavern, thus beginning the era of modern Freemasonry. Rather than being a guild of stone masons and builders, they ...
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Benjamin Franklin: “Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”
"Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech." - The New England Courant, July 9, 1722 ...
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Benjamin Franklin: “Whoever would Overthrow the Liberty of a Nation must Begin by Subduing the Freeness of Speech.”
Silence Dogood, No. 8 Printed in The New-England Courant, July 9, 1722. On June 11 the Courant had insinuated that the Massachusetts authorities were not making proper exertions to capture a pirate vessel reported to be off the coast.3 Exasperated by this “High Affront,” the latest of many, the General Court ...
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Ben Franklin: “Thou abhorrest in Thy creatures treachery and deceit, malice, revenge, Intemperance and every other hurtful Vice…”
Benjamin Franklin in his 'Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion', November 20, 1728: "It is that particular wise and good God, who is the Author and Owner of our system, that I propose for the Object of my praise and adoration. For I conceive that He has in Himself ...
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