Today in History

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FBI FOUNDED:

July 26, 1908

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On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte orders a group of newly hired federal investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the Department of Justice. One year later, the Office of the Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, and in 1935 it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

When the Department of Justice was created in 1870 to enforce federal law and coordinate judicial policy, it had no permanent investigators on its staff. At first, it hired private detectives when it needed federal crimes investigated and later rented out investigators from other federal agencies, such as the Secret Service, which was created by the Department of the Treasury in 1865 to investigate counterfeiting. In the early part of the 20th century, the attorney general was authorized to hire a few permanent investigators, and the Office of the Chief Examiner, which consisted mostly of accountants, was created to review financial transactions of the federal courts.

 

Seeking to form an independent and more efficient investigative arm, in 1908 the Department of Justice hired 10 former Secret Service employees to join an expanded Office of the Chief Examiner. The date when these agents reported to duty--July 26, 1908--is celebrated as the genesis of the FBI. By March 1909, the force included 34 agents, and Attorney General George Wickersham, Bonaparte's successor, renamed it the Bureau of Investigation.

 

The federal government used the bureau as a tool to investigate criminals who evaded prosecution by passing over state lines, and within a few years the number of agents had grown to more than 300. The agency was opposed by some in Congress, who feared that its growing authority could lead to abuse of power. With the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, the bureau was given responsibility in investigating draft resisters, violators of the Espionage Act of 1917, and immigrants suspected of radicalism.

 

Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover, a lawyer and former librarian, joined the Department of Justice in 1917 and within two years had become special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Deeply anti-radical in his ideology, Hoover came to the forefront of federal law enforcement during the so-called "Red Scare" of 1919 to 1920. He set up a card index system listing every radical leader, organization, and publication in the United States and by 1921 had amassed some 450,000 files. More than 10,000 suspected communists were also arrested during this period, but the vast majority of these people were briefly questioned and then released. Although the attorney general was criticized for abusing his power during the so-called "Palmer Raids," Hoover emerged unscathed, and on May 10, 1924, he was appointed acting director of the Bureau of Investigation.

 

During the 1920s, with Congress' approval, Director Hoover drastically restructured and expanded the Bureau of Investigation. He built the agency into an efficient crime-fighting machine, establishing a centralized fingerprint file, a crime laboratory, and a training school for agents. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Investigation launched a dramatic battle against the epidemic of organized crime brought on by Prohibition. Notorious gangsters such as George "Machine Gun" Kelly and John Dillinger met their ends looking down the barrels of bureau-issued guns, while others, like Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the elusive head of Murder, Inc., were successfully investigated and prosecuted by Hoover's "G-men." Hoover, who had a keen eye for public relations, participated in a number of these widely publicized arrests, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as it was known after 1935, became highly regarded by Congress and the American public.

 

With the outbreak of World War II, Hoover revived the anti-espionage techniques he had developed during the first Red Scare, and domestic wiretaps and other electronic surveillance expanded dramatically. After World War II, Hoover focused on the threat of radical, especially communist, subversion. The FBI compiled files on millions of Americans suspected of dissident activity, and Hoover worked closely with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy, the architect of America's second Red Scare.

 

In 1956, Hoover initiated COINTELPRO, a secret counterintelligence program that initially targeted the U.S. Communist Party but later was expanded to infiltrate and disrupt any radical organization in America. During the 1960s, the immense resources of COINTELPRO were used against dangerous groups such as the Ku Klux Klan but also against African American civil rights organizations and liberal anti-war organizations. One figure especially targeted was civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who endured systematic harassment from the FBI.

 

By the time Hoover entered service under his eighth president in 1969, the media, the public, and Congress had grown suspicious that the FBI might be abusing its authority. For the first time in his bureaucratic career, Hoover endured widespread criticism, and Congress responded by passing laws requiring Senate confirmation of future FBI directors and limiting their tenure to 10 years. On May 2, 1972, with the Watergate affair about to explode onto the national stage, J. Edgar Hoover died of heart disease at the age of 77.

 

The Watergate affair subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation, and the agency was thoroughly investigated by Congress. Revelations of the FBI's abuses of power and unconstitutional surveillance motivated Congress and the media to become more vigilant in the future monitoring of the FBI.

 

 

 

1861 McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac

 

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George McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac after the disaster at Bull Run five days prior. McClellan built the army into a powerhouse in the winter of 1861-62, although he proved to be a weak field commander.

 

 

 

 

 

1863 Sam Houston dies

 

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On this day, Sam Houston, who led the Texans to victory in their struggle for independence against Mexico in 1837, dies in Texas. Houston had opposed Texas' secession from the Union.

 

 

 

1947 Truman signs the National Security Act

 

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President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. The act established much of the bureaucratic framework for foreign policymaking for the next 40-plus years of the Cold War.

 

By July 1947, the Cold War was in full swing. The United States and the Soviet Union, once allies during World War II, now faced off as ideological enemies. In the preceding months, the administration of President Truman had argued for, and secured, military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to assist in their struggles against communist insurgents. In addition, the Marshall Plan, which called for billions of dollars in U.S. aid to help rebuild war-torn Western Europe and strengthen it against possible communist aggression, had also taken shape. As the magnitude of the Cold War increased, however, so too did the need for a more efficient and manageable foreign policymaking bureaucracy in the United States. The National Security Act was the solution.

 

The National Security Act had three main parts. First, it streamlined and unified the nation's military establishment by bringing together the Navy Department and War Department under a new Department of Defense. This department would facilitate control and utilization of the nation's growing military. Second, the act established the National Security Council (NSC). Based in the White House, the NSC was supposed to serve as a coordinating agency, sifting through the increasing flow of diplomatic and intelligence information in order to provide the president with brief but detailed reports. Finally, the act set up the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA replaced the Central Intelligence Group, which had been established in 1946 to coordinate the intelligence-gathering activities of the various military branches and the Department of State. The CIA, however, was to be much more--it was a separate agency, designed not only to gather intelligence but also to carry out covert operations in foreign nations.

 

The National Security Act formally took effect in September 1947. Since that time, the Department of Defense, NSC, and CIA have grown steadily in terms of size, budgets, and power. The Department of Defense, housed in the Pentagon, controls a budget that many Third World nations would envy. The NSC rapidly became not simply an information organizing agency, but one that was active in the formation of foreign policy. The CIA also grew in power over the course of the Cold War, becoming involved in numerous covert operations. Most notable of these was the failed Bay of Pigs operation of 1961, in which Cuban refugees, trained and armed by the CIA, were unleashed against the communist regime of Fidel Castro. The mission was a disaster, with most of the attackers either killed or captured in a short time. Though it had both successes and failures, the National Security Act indicated just how seriously the U.S. government took the Cold War threat.

 

 

 

1943 Mick Jagger born

 

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Michael Phillip Jagger, later known simply as Mick, is born on this day in Dartford, England. He dropped out of the London School of Economics to form the Rolling Stones with Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Brian Jones. The band cultivated a rebellious, in-your-face attitude that contrasted with the clean-cut sound of the Beatles and other groups in the early 1960s. The band continued to play for more than four decades.

 

 

 

1996 Simulacra, Supercomputer

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On this day in 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that the Department of Energy had handed erstwhile computer giant IBM a handsome computer development contract. For a fee of $93 million, Big Blue's top of team of developers were set to spend two years developing a custom "supercomputer." But, as details of the deal were released to the press, it became clear that this would be no ordinary supercomputer; rather, IBM was slated to build the world's speediest computer, capable of finishing tasks 300 times faster than any previous computing machine. The Department of Energy intended to harness the machine's zippy processing power to conduct nuclear test simulations. Though the concept sounded as though it had been ripped from a Tom Clancy novel (the supercomputer even came complete with a stealthy code name, "DOE Option Blue"), the faux weapons tests were in fact a key plank of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The deal also called for the supercomputer to be swiftly converted to civilian duty, to perform tasks including the replication of hurricanes and wind tunnels in tests on space ships and airplanes.

 

 

 

 

1941 United States freezes Japanese assets

 

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On this day in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China.

 

On July 24, Tokyo decided to strengthen its position in terms of its invasion of China by moving through Southeast Asia. Given that France had long occupied parts of the region, and Germany, a Japanese ally, now controlled most of France through Petain's puppet government, France "agreed" to the occupation of its Indo-China colonies. Japan followed up by occupying Cam Ranh naval base, 800 miles from the Philippines, where Americans had troops, and the British base at Singapore.

 

President Roosevelt swung into action by freezing all Japanese assets in America. Britain and the Dutch East Indies followed suit. The result: Japan lost access to three-fourths of its overseas trade and 88 percent of its imported oil. Japan's oil reserves were only sufficient to last three years, and only half that time if it went to war and consumed fuel at a more frenzied pace. Japan's immediate response was to occupy Saigon, again with Vichy France's acquiescence. If Japan could gain control of Southeast Asia, including Malaya, it could also control the region's rubber and tin production-a serious blow to the West, which imported such materials from the East. Japan was now faced with a dilemma-back off of its occupation of Southeast Asia and hope the oil embargo would be eased-or seize the oil and further antagonize the West, even into war.

 

 

 

1847 Liberian independence proclaimed

 

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The Republic of Liberia, formerly a colony of the American Colonization Society, declares its independence. Under pressure from Britain, the United States hesitantly accepted Liberian sovereignty, making the West African nation the first democratic republic in African history. A constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution was approved, and in 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected Liberia's first president.

 

The American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 by American Robert Finley to return freed African American slaves to Africa. In 1820, the first former U.S. slaves arrived at the British colony of Sierra Leone from the United States, and in 1821 the American Colonization Society founded the colony of Liberia south of Sierra Leone as a homeland for former slaves outside British jurisdiction.

 

The American Colonization Society came under attack from U.S. abolitionists, who charged that the removal of freed slaves from the United States strengthened the institution of slavery. In addition, most Americans of African descent were not enthusiastic to abandon their native lands in the United States for the harsh West African coast. Nevertheless, between 1822 and the American Civil War, some 15,000 African Americans settled in Liberia. Independence was granted by the United States in 1847, and Liberia aided Britain in its efforts to end the illegal West African slave trade. Official U.S. diplomatic recognition came in 1862.

 

With the backing of the United States, Liberia kept its independence though the turmoil of the 20th century. A costly civil war began in 1989 and lasted until 1997, when Charles Taylor was elected Liberian president in free elections. His administration has been criticized for supporting the rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. Some three million people live in Liberia today.

 

 

 

 

1945 Winston Churchill resigns

 

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In the 11th hour of World War II, Winston Churchill is forced to resign as British prime minister following his party's electoral defeat by the Labour Party. It was the first general election held in Britain in more than a decade. The same day, Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was sworn in as the new British leader.

 

Born at Blenheim Palace in 1874, Churchill joined the British Fourth Hussars upon his father's death in 1895. During the next five years, he enjoyed an illustrious military career, serving in India, the Sudan, and South Africa, and distinguishing himself several times in battle. In 1899, he resigned his commission to concentrate on his literary and political career and in 1900 was elected to Parliament as a Conservative MP from Oldham. In 1904, he joined the Liberals, serving in a number of important posts before being appointed Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, where he worked to bring the British navy to a readiness for the war he foresaw.

 

In 1915, in the second year of World War I, Churchill was held responsible for the disastrous Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, and he was excluded from the war coalition government. He resigned and volunteered to command an infantry battalion in France. However, in 1917, he returned to politics as a cabinet member in the Liberal government of Lloyd George. From 1919 to 1921, he was secretary of state for war and in 1924 returned to the Conservative Party, where two years later he played a leading role in the defeat of the General Strike of 1926. Out of office from 1929 to 1939, Churchill issued unheeded warnings of the threat of Nazi and Japanese aggression.

 

After the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Churchill was called back to his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and eight months later replaced the ineffectual Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of a new coalition government. In the first year of his administration, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would "never surrender." He rallied the British people to a resolute resistance and expertly orchestrated Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin into an alliance that eventually crushed the Axis.

 

In July 1945, a few weeks before the defeat of Japan in World War II, his Conservative government suffered an electoral loss against Clement Attlee's Labour Party, and Churchill resigned as prime minister. He became leader of the opposition and in 1951 was again elected prime minister. Two years later, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his six-volume historical study of World War II and for his political speeches. In 1955, he retired as prime minister but remained in Parliament until 1964, the year before his death.

 

 

 

 

1956 Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal

 

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The Suez Crisis begins when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the British and French-owned Suez Canal.

 

The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas across Egypt, was completed by French engineers in 1869. For the next 87 years, it remained largely under British and French control, and Europe depended on it as an inexpensive shipping route for oil from the Middle East.

 

After World War II, Egypt pressed for evacuation of British troops from the Suez Canal Zone, and in July 1956 President Nasser nationalized the canal, hoping to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed in early November, occupying the canal zone. Under Soviet, U.S., and U.N. pressure, Britain and France withdrew in December, and Israeli forces departed in March 1957. That month, Egypt took control of the canal and reopened it to commercial shipping.

 

Ten years later, Egypt shut down the canal again following the Six Day War and Israel's occupation of the Sinai peninsula. For the next eight years, the Suez Canal, which separates the Sinai from the rest of Egypt, existed as the front line between the Egyptian and Israeli armies. In 1975, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened the Suez Canal as a gesture of peace after talks with Israel. Today, an average of 50 ships navigate the canal daily, carrying more than 300 million tons of goods a year.

 

 

On this date:

 

• In 1775, Benjamin Franklin became postmaster-general.

 

• In 1788, New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

 

• In 1948, President Truman signed a pair of executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.

 

• In 1952, Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president by the Democratic national convention in Chicago; John J. Sparkman was nominated for vice president.

 

• In 1952, King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

 

• In 1953, Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. (Castro ousted Batista in 1959.)

 

• In 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

Birthdays

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1739 George Clinton NY, (D-R) 4th VP (1805-12)

1796 George Catlin US, author/painter of American Indian scenes

1799 Isaac Babbitt invented babbitt's metal for bearings

1805 Constantine Brumidi artist (Myrtle Murdock)

1829 Auguste Beernaert Belgium (Nobel Peace Prize-1909)

1856 George Bernard Shaw Dublin Ire, dramatist (Pygmalion-Nobel 1925)

1872 George Louis Beer historian (authority on British colonies)

1874 Serge Koussevitzky Vishny-Volotchok, Russia conductor (Boston Symp)

1875 Dr Carl Gustav Jung Switzerland, founded analytic psychology

1876 Ernest Schelling Belvidere NJ, composer/conductor (Victory Ball)

1892 Pearl S Buck US, novelist (The Good Earth)

1894 Aldous Huxley England, author (Brave New World)

1899 Danton Walker Mariette Ga, columnist (Broadway Spotlight)

19-- Robert Colbert Long Beach Ca, actor (Time Tunnel, Young & Restless)

1902 Gracie Allen SF Calif, Mrs George Burns/comedian (Burns & Allen)

1903 Donald Voorhees Allentown Pa, conductor (Bell Telephone Hour)

1907 Istvan Pelle Hungary, gymnist (Olympic-gold-1932)

1908 Salvador Allende Gossens Chile's last elected president (1970-73)

1913 Lou Salica US, flyweight boxer (Olympic-bronze-1932)

1917 Bertil Nordahl Sweden, soccer players (Olympic-gold-1948)

1917 Richard Burnell England, double sculls (Olympic-gold-1948)

1920 Bob Waterfield NFL QB (Rams)

1922 Blake Edwards writer/director (10, SOB, Breakfast at Tiffany's)

1922 Jason Robards Jr actor (A Thousand Clowns, Act 1, Any Wednesday)

1922 Marjorie Lord SF Calif, actress (Kathy-Danny Thomas Show)

1924 Louis Bellson Rock Falls Ill, orch leader (Pearl Bailey Show)

1926 Don Carter bowling great (1st PBA president)

1926 James Best Corydon Ind, actor (Savages, Sounder, Rolling Thunder)

1928 Stanley Kubrick NYC, director (2001, Dr Strangelove, Lolita)

1929 Alexis Weissenberg Sofia Bulgaria, pianist (Levintritt-1948)

1929 Jean Shepherd humorist (Playboy satire Award 1966, 1967, 1969)

1931 Takashi Ono Japan, gymnist (Olympic-gold-1956, 60)

1936 Kathryn Hays actress (Kim-As the World Turns)

1940 Mary Jo Kopechne Ted Kennedy's d®iving buddy

1941 Bobby Hebb Nashville Tn, country singer (Sunny)

1941 Brenton Wood Shreveport La, rocker (Gimme Little Sign)

1941 Darlene Love singer/actress (Lethal Weapon)

1942 Dobie Gray Brookshire Tx, singer (In Crowd)

1943 Mick Jagger Rolling Stone, never gathers moss

1944 Kiel Martin Pitts Pa, actor (Det LaRue-Hill Street Blues)

1944 Micki J King springboard diver (Olympic-gold-1972)

1945 Linda Harrison Berlin Md, actress (Bracken's World, Planet of Apes)

1946 Helen Mirren [Eleni Mironova], England, actress (Cook Thief Wife)

1948 Norair Nurikian Bulgari, bantam weight (Olympic-gold-1972, 76)

1949 Roger Taylor rocker (Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody)

1949 William M Shepherd Oak Ridge Tenn, Capt USN/astronaut (STS-27, 41)

1950 Susan George London England, actress (Straw Dogs, Mandingo)

1951 William Surles "Bill" McArthur Jr Laurinburg NC, Lt Col/astronaut

1952 Ludmila Maslakova USSR, relay runner (Olympic-silver-1980)

1954 Vitas Gerulaitis Brooklyn NY, tennis star (Australia 1987)

1955 Nicholas Walker Bogota Col, actor (Capitol, Jimmy-General Hospital)

1956 Dorothy Hamill Ct, ice figure skater (Olympic-gold-1976)

1961 Andy Connel rocker (Swingout Sister-Swingout)

1961 Gary Cherone Boston, heavy metal vocalist (Extreme-More Than Words)

1963 Andrew C Timmons Scottsdale Az, guitarist (Danger Danger-Screw It)

1965 Jennifer Ashe actress (As the World Turns)

1973 Mike Burke NY Yankees pres/CEO of Madison Sq Garden

 

 

Deaths which occurred on July 26:

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1863 Sam Houston president of Texas, dies at 70

1925 William Jennings Bryan jurist, dies

1941 Marx Dormoy French socialist, killed by a time bomb

1952 Eva "Evita" Peron Argentina's 1st lady, dies in Buenos Aires at 33

1965 Constance Bennett actress, dies at 59

1982 Betty Walker actress (Steve Lawrence Show), dies at 54

1984 Ed "Psycho" Gein dies

1986 Averell Harriman statesman, dies in Yorktown Heights, NY at 94

1990 Brian Mydland keyboardist (Grateful Dead), dies at 38

 

 

 

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1790 US passes Assumption bill making US responsible for state debts

1835 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii

1848 1st Woman's Rights Convention (Senecca Falls NY)

1863 At Salineville, OH John Hunt Morgan & 364 troops surrender

1865 Patrick Francis Healy is 1st black awarded PhD (Louvain Belgium)

1866 Canoe Club opens in England

1887 1st Esperanto book published

1905 P Gotz discovers asteroid #568 Cheruskia

1918 Race riot in Philadelphia (3 whites & 1 black killed)

1923 James Hoyt Wilhelm, pitcher

1926 National Bar Association incorporates

1928 Yanks score 11 runs in 12th beating Tigers 12-1

1933 Joe Dimaggio ends 61 game hitting streak in Pacific Coast League

1939 Yankee catcher Bill Dickey hits 3 consecutive HRs

1943 120ø F (49ø C), Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record)

1947 Department of Defense established

1948 1st black host of a network show-CBS' Bob Howard Show

1948 Pres Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 directing "equality of

treatment & opportunity" in the armed forces

1949 C A Wirtanen discovers asteroid #1951 Lick

1952 Mickey Mantle hits his 1st grand-slammer

1953 Cuban pirate radio station's 1st transmission at Santiago de Cuba

1955 Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers

1956 Egypt seizes Suez Canal

1957 Mickey Mantle hits career HR # 200

1957 USSR launches 1st intercontinental multistage ballistic missile

1958 Army launches 4th US successful satellite, Explorer IV

1959 C Hoffmeister discovers asteroid #2183

1963 US Syncom 2, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched

1964 Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud & conspiracy

1964 Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal derails near Oporto, 94 die

1965 Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain (Nat'l Day)

1967 Twins beat Yanks 3-2 in 18

1969 Sharon Sites Adams, 39, becomes 1st lady to solo sail the Pacific

1971 Apollo 15 launched to the Moon

1971 N Chernykh discovers asteroid #1836 Komarov

1974 USSR's Soyuz fails to dock with Salyut 3

1975 Soyuz 18B returns to Earth

1979 Estimated 109 cm (43") of rain falls in Alvin, TX (national record)

1981 2 climbers rappell 550 m down cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela

1981 E Bowell discovers asteroids #2845 Franklinken & #2882 Tedesco

1981 NY Mayor Ed Koch is given Heimlich maneuver in a Chinese restaurant

1982 Canada's Anik D1 Comsat launched by US Delta rocket

1983 Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating for STS-8

1983 Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech sets 800m woman's record (1:53.28)

1986 Lebanese kidnappers released Rev Lawrence Martin Jenco

1988 Mike Schmidt sets NL record appearing in 2,155 games at 3rd base, as

Phillies & NY Mets end that game at 2:13 AM

1990 General Hospital tapes its 7,000th episode

1990 US beats the Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at the Goodwill Games

1991 Expo's Mark Gardner no hits Dodgers for 9 innings, but loses in 10th

1991 Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) is arrested in Florida, for exposing

himself at an adult movie theater

 

 

Holidays

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Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

 

Athens, Texas : Black-Eyed Peas Jamboree starts (07181986)

Cuba : Anniversary of Moncada Barricks attack (1953)

Liberia : Independence Day (1847)

Maldives : National Day (1965)

New York : Ratification Day (1788)

Sweden : Bellman Day- honoring Carl Michael Bellman

Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day - - - - - ( Monday )

Gilroy, California : Garlic Festival - - - - - ( Friday )

 

 

Religious Observances

RC : Commemoration of St Bartolomea Capitania, Italian foundress

RC : Memorial of SS Joachim & Anne, parents of Virgin Mary

 

Religious History

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1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. He then 'authorized'an English translation of the Scriptures, first published in 1611 and known since as the'King James Version' of the Bible.

1741 English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Venture daily uponChrist, go out in His strength, and He will enable you to do wonders.'

1869 In England, the Disestablishment Bill was passed, officially dissolving the Churchof Ireland. (Organized opposition to this legislation coined one of longest words in theEnglish language: antidisestablishmentarianism.)

1926 The sanctuary of Our Lady of Victory, in Lackawanna, NY, became the first RomanCatholic church in the U.S. to be consecrated a basilica.

1935 The Open Bible Standard Churches was formed when two smaller revival movementswith similar objectives merged. OBSCI is headquartered today in Des Moines.

Edited July 26, 2004 by WEAREBORG4102