Frederick III, the elector of Saxony also called "Frederick the Wise," dies. An avid collector of relics and a supporter of modern scholarship (he founded the University of Wittenberg), Frederick protected Martin Luther after the Diet of Worms condemned the reformer.

Christian existentialist Soren Kierkegaard is born in Copenhagen. The Danish philosopher believed no philosophical system could explain the human condition; the experience of reality was what mattered, not the "idea" of it. His most famous and his first book, Either/Or, sought in part to explain why he suddenly broke off his engagement.

The American Bible Society (ABS) organizes in New York to distribute the Bible throughout the world. The organization has distributed hundreds of millions of Bibles in thousands of languages worldwide.

Henry Caesar Malan was converted and he rejoiced in grace. From there he befriended evangelical Robert Haldane, and he learned more of the doctrines of grace as he studied the old Reformed documents like the Canons of Dort. On May 5, 1817, he took the pulpit of St. Gervais and proclaimed justification by faith alone and salvation by Christ alone. The Company of pastors forbid him from preaching anymore to the city after that sermon. Malan would eventually pastor churches that were independent of the company of pastors and travel widely proclaiming the good news of the gospel.

On this day, May 5, 1819, William Ellery Channing delivered the speech which separated the Unitarians from the Calvinists and soon made them an independent denomination.

FRANCES WILLARD was famous for her work on behalf of alcoholic prohibition and women’s rights. For many years, she oversaw huge growth in the numbers and influence of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, efforts tireless and convictions strong. On this day, 5 May 1861, Willard and her sister Mary submitted to baptism and joined the church.

Birth of New England musical artist Ithamar Conkey. In addition to being a well-known church organist and bass soloist, Conkey also penned the hymn tune RATHBUN, to which we sing today, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."

The Religious Tract Society, founded in 1799, celebrated its 100th anniversary in Exeter Hall, London. The Society had by then published and distributed Christian literature in over 270 languages and dialects.

American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'The conflict of science and religion is fought between the errors of both camps.'

Eugene Antonio Marino, 53, was installed as the archbishop of Atlanta, becoming the first black Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S.

FRANCES WILLARD was famous for her work on behalf of alcoholic prohibition and women’s rights. For many years, she oversaw huge growth in the numbers and influence of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, efforts tireless and convictions strong. On this day, 5 May 1861, Willard and her sister Mary submitted to baptism and joined the church.

Orthodox Russians in Yekaterinburg (Russia’s fourth largest city and located in the Ural Federal District) burn a number of books by “liberals” such as Alexander Men (sometimes called the C. S. Lewis of the Soviet Union), Nicolas Afanasiev, Alexander Schmemann, and John Meyendorff, deeming them heretical .

Arrest of the Orthodox bishop, Platon of Banja Luka, in Croatia by the fascist group known as the Ustashe. He had been ordered to leave but appealed for time to set his church affairs in order. He will be killed along with hundreds of thousands of other individuals, mostly Serbs, in a campaign of ethnic cleansing .

Death of Alexander McLaren, a non-conformist preacher who had preached from the original languages of the Bible and witnessed deep transformations in the churches he pastored . He had thought his sermons fell short , but posterity will regard them as among the clearest ever published .

A General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (later renamed the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) meets in Augusta, GA. Its principal achievement will be establishment of a financial system that assesses twenty cents per year on each member , to be divided in this way: for bishops, eight cents; missions, three cents; education, three cents; publishing interests, three cents; Israel Church and Miles Chapel, three cents. The system will work well and be retained with variations for many years .

Death of James Ireland, a Baptist preacher who had undergone severe incarceration and several attempts upon his life at the hands of the established church in Virginia .

Death of Jean Astruc, a pioneer in the study of venereal diseases and of biblical criticism. In an effort to defend the books of Moses, he noted the different contexts of Elohim and Yahweh (Hebrew names for God) and proposed the documentary hypothesis, that Genesis was based on several ancient sources .

Antonio Homem, a Christian theologian from Coimbra University, is burned at the stake in an auto da fé in Lisbon, Portugal. A Jew by ancestry, his family had been forced to convert to Christianity in the sixteenth century and the Portuguese Inquisition accused him of Jewish sympathies and secret Jewish worship, in part because he had recited some of the more Jewish-sounding Psalms from the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible .

Election of Jeremias II as patriarch of Constantinople. The Turks will remove him from office twice and imprison him once. More than most patriarchs, he will interact with the West. He will also make the Russian Orthodox Church self-governing .

Henry Caesar Malan was converted and he rejoiced in grace. From there he befriended evangelical Robert Haldane, and he learned more of the doctrines of grace as he studied the old Reformed documents like the Canons of Dort. On May 5, 1817, he took the pulpit of St. Gervais and proclaimed justification by faith alone and salvation by Christ alone. The Company of pastors forbid him from preaching anymore to the city after that sermon. Malan would eventually pastor churches that were independent of the company of pastors and travel widely proclaiming the good news of the gospel. He also wrote many hymns and helped bring hymn singing into the French churches in Geneva and France .

On this day, May 5, 1819, William Ellery Channingdelivered the speech which separated the Unitarians from the Calvinists and soon made them an independent denomination .

A year earlier, on this day, May 5, 1936, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, had fallen to Mussolini's invading armies. Emperor Haile Selassie fled. Barefoot Ethiopian soldiers resisted bravely against tanks and mustard gas, but the Italians won. However, also on this day, May 5, 1941, five years to the day that Mussolini had left Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie returned and the missionaries returned to the capital, too. Reports reached them from Wallamo announced that not only had the church survived, it had grown. Not only had it grown, it had grown more than 200 times greater. The 48 believers who were in Wallamo had become 10,000 in their seekfor God’s deliverance!

The Second Council of Constantinople convenes under the presidency of Eutychius, the city's new patriarch. The council, loaded with bishops from the Eastern church, attacked Nestorianism ( a "heresy"—many have questioned that anathema—that overemphasizes Christ's dual nature as God and man ). Nestorian Christians exist to this Day

Frederick III, the elector of Saxony also called "Frederick the Wise," dies. An avid collector of relics and a supporter of modern scholarship (he founded the University of Wittenberg), Frederick protected Martin Luther after the Diet of Worms condemned the reformer

Christian existentialist Soren Kierkegaard is born in Copenhagen . The Danish philosopher believed no philosophical system could explain the human condition; the experience of reality was what mattered, not the "idea" of it. His most famous and his first book , Either/Or, sought in part to explain why he suddenly broke off his engagement .

The American Bible Society (ABS) organizes in New York to distribute the Bible throughout the world. The organization has distributed hundreds of millions of Bibles in thousands of languages worldwide .

Dayton, Tennessee, teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in his classroom. (He volunteered to admit violating a recent statute prohibiting such teaching so that the law could be tested in court.) The resulting trial—the first "trial of the century"—led to public mockery of fundamentalist Christians, driving them into a more self-contained subculture .