When Pope Julius II blessed the foundation stone of the “new” St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on April 18, 1506, he reportedly was lowered into the hole where the stones were being laid. Thousands of people came to watch and for the next 120 years architects and builders and artisans and popes would come and go until St. Peter’s was …

Augustine was one of the greatest theologians in all of Christian history. He was a tremendous thinker about how the church should operate and was the first to expound on and articulate the doctrine of predestination. He also believed parts of the Apocrypha were Scripture and that church tradition was equal to the Bible – which is where the Roman …

The Orkney Islands of Scotland were, from time to time, ruled by Norway and at one point in time the Islands were jointly ruled by local twin brothers named Erlend and Paul. Eventually Paul died and his son Haakon and Erlend co-ruled under the approval of the King of Norway until Haakon wanted all the power to rule the Orkneys. …

Father Damien is a hero in Hawaii for the efforts he made at the former leper colony on Molokai. A Roman Catholic priest from Belgium, Joseph Damien greatly improved the living conditions for the lepers there and ultimately died of leprosy on April 15, 1889. Every state in the US can send two statues from their state to be displayed …

Do you know the name Mitsuo Fuchida? Probably not. Have you heard of “Tora! Tora! Tora!”? My guess is yes. Mitsuo Fuchida was the leader of the Japanese bomber unit that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 who gave that famous directive to his fellow pilots. One day after the war he read a pamphlet by American Jake DeShazer …

When the Duke of Devonshire invited George Fredic Handel to perform a benefit concert for charity he most likely had no idea of the impact. First performed on April 13, 1742 at the Fishamble Street Music Hall in Dublin, Ireland (pictured here) Handel wanted it to be easily performed by a smaller orchestra. He had already suffered a stroke when …

Adoniram Judson, along with William Carey and Hudson Taylor, was a true pioneer in the foreign mission field. He spent his time in Burma with his first wife Ann along his side. He died on April 12, 1850 with the distinction of being the first American missionary to Burma and having translated parts of the Bible into the Burmese language. …

The Women’s Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands doesn’t sound like a real catchy title that was created by an advertising focus group but when Sarah Platt Doremus founded it on April 11, 1861 cute titles were not her focus. She and other women were moved by a talk from a missionary to Burma about the plight of …

Johannes Brahms (one of the “Three B’s” with Beethoven and Bach) wrote numerous symphonies and concertos as well as his famous Lullaby. One of his most important pieces was the German Requiem which was first heard in its entirety on April 10, 1868 when it was performed at the cathedral in Bremen, Germany pictured here. He used entire passages from …

When Louisa Lee finished college with a teaching degree in her native state of Washington in 1911, twenty-two years later she had finished her first tour of duty with Presbyterian USA Missions in India. However she disagreed with the leadership when they told her they no longer accepted the authority and inerrancy of Scripture so she left the Presbyterian USA …