Church History

 "Romans 5:12-14 teaches that we are guilty of the sin of Adam because "we were there" in Adam.  This may seem like a minor point of theology, but it is very important.  A case can be made from church history showing that in the late 18th century denial of this truth led directly to the liberalism of the early 19th century which in turn ended up denying both Christ and the Bible.  This happened because people of that time reasoned that if we are not really guilty of the sin of Adam then we are not really born sinners, which means we don't really need a savior, which means we don't need Jesus, which means we don't need the Bible, etc.  Entire denominations fell over this seemingly "minor" point."

   Words spoken by Rev. Rick Mathews , who gave the message in the morning service at Temple Baptist Church on August 18, 2002.

                                                                                                  For an exclusive chronological history that records events that happened from the year Temple Baptist Church was organized to present date, Click Here 

We start our history page in one of these dark times in this world where we live.

            Religious persecution and economic hardships came about in the early days in Europe and America that led to the influx of Swedish immigrants, the formation of the churches and things that make up the Baptist General Conference as we know it today and a final result of this History Page being written.  Click Here to read a brief introduction.

Creation of the Earth - (Undated)  In the beginning God created the Heaven's and the Earth.  Genesis 1:1  According to the first verses of Genesis God created the Heavens and the Earth in 6 - 24 hour days.  God rested on the seventh day.
    Day One: Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night."  And there was evening, and there was morning---the first day.
            Day Two: Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters to separate water of the heavens from waters of the earth."   And that is what happened.  God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.  "God called the space "sky."  And evening passed and morning came marking the second day.
            Day Three: Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear."  And that is what happened.  God called the dry ground "land" and the waters "seas."  And God saw that it was good.  Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation -- ever sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed bearing fruit.  These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came."  And that is what happened.  The land produced vegetation -- all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit.  Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind.  And God saw that it was good.  And the evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.
            Day Four: Then God said, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night.  Let them be signs to mark the season, days, and years.  Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth."  And that is what happened.  God made two great lights. -- the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night.  He also made the stars.  God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness.  And God saw that it was good.  And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.
            Day Five: Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life.  Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."  So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird -- each producing offspring of the same kind.  And God saw that it was good.  Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."  And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.
            Day Six: Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing off spring of the same kind -- Livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals."  And that is what happened.  God made all sort of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind.  And God saw that it was good.  Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.  They will reign over the fish in the seas, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."  So God created human beings in His own image.  In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.  Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant through out the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.  And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals and the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground -- everything that has life."  Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!  And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
            Day Seven: So the creation of the heavens and the earth and every thing in them was completed.  On the seventh day God had finished His work of creation, so He rested from all His work.  And God blessed the seventh day and declared it Holy because it was the day when He rested from all the work of creation.

Noah Builds the Ark - (Undated)  
            The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.  It was made primarily of Cyprus wood.  There was no sea trial and this type of water craft had never been built before.  It held 45,000 animals comprised of seven each of clean and two each of unclean animals.  Noah built the ark on faith and with God's instruction.  Noah and his son's left the details up to God, such as the collection of the animals and spent their  time with the construction of the ark. The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.   The waters flooded the earth for one hundred and fifty days.  In the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. The ark landed in the mountains of Ararat in Turkey near the USSR border.  It rested there almost 8 months before Noah, his family and the animals stepped onto dry land,  They spent an entire year in the ark.  We, like Noah must trust God to give us patience during those difficult time when we must wait.
            Many of us have trouble sticking to any project, whether or not it is directed by God.  It is interesting that the length of Noah's obedience was greater than the life span of people today.  The only comprehensible long-term project is our very lives.  But perhaps this is one great challenge Noah's life gives us - to live, in accordance with God's grace, an entire lifetime of obedience and gratitude.
            Noah lived a total of 900 years.
10000 BC (circa)
            The first permanent settlement on the site of Jericho developed near the Ein as-Sultan spring between 10,000 and 9,000 BC.  Jericho may be the oldest continuously occupied city in the world.

3200 BC (circa)
            The Egyptian City of Thebes was inhabited.  The city was sacked by the Assyrians in 681 BC. (Nahum 3:8-10) and the Romans again in 29 BC.  It said that a Greek visitor in 20 BC came to the site reported only a few scattered villages.  The city is now known as Luxor.  The temples of Luxor, Karnack and the area of Valley of Queens & the Valley of the Kings, which includes the tombs of Tutankhamen and the sons of Ramses II, are among the most splendid in the world. These and other sites in the area has been the scene of much important archaeological work.

3138 BC (circa) 
            Enoch was born, according to the Timeline of Jewish History.   He was born in the seventh generation from Adam. His son, Methuselah, lived longer than anyone else.  He was a prophet of God; he warned the wicked of coming judgment, lived at the time when following the Lord was utterly unpopular, went to heaven with out experiencing physical death.  His temporal journey ended one day while he was walking with God.  Enoch, without dying, was suddenly snatched away to heaven.  The biblical account regarding Enoch consists of just a handful of verses found in Genesis, Hebrews, and Jude (along with mentions of his name in I Chronicles 1:3 and Luke 3:37.
            Taken in part from a book by John MacArthur, "Twelve Unlikely Heroes."  

2560 BC (circa)
            The Great Pyramids of Giza was built this year (circa).  It is also called the Pyramid of Khufu, and sometimes referred to as the Pyramid of Cheops.  It is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis border what is now El Giza, Egypt.  It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.  It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu.  Khufu founder of the 4th Dynasty around 2680 BC and ruled Egypt for 23 years.

2500 BC (circa)
            The Great Sphinx outside of Cairo was built around this year.  It is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it, such as who was the model for the face, when it was built, and by whom are still debated.
            Egyptians discover papyrus and ink for writing and build the first libraries; iron objects manufactured in the ancient Near East.

2500 BC
            The Egyptians discover papyrus and ink for writing and build the first libraries, iron objects were manufactured in the ancient Near East. 

2400 BC (circa)
             Egyptians import gold from other parts of Africa.  Egyptian domestic trade was done by barter, gold had no economic importance.  Egyptians believed that gold was a divine and indestructible metal associated with the sun.

2331 BC
             Semitic chieftain, Sargon, conquers Sumer to become first "World Conqueror." 

2300 BC (circa)
            Horses domesticated in Egypt; chickens domesticated in Babylon; bows and arrows used in wars.

2166 BC (circa)
            Abram was born.

2100 BC
            Glass was made by the Mesopotamians Ziggurats  The tower of Babel built in Mesopotamia; earliest discovered drug ethyl alcohol, used to alleviate pain.

2091 BC (circa)
            Abram Entered Canaan.

2066 BC (circa)
            Isaac was born.

2006 BC (circa)
            Jacob and Esau were born.

2000 BC
            Native Americans immigrated to North America from northern Asia stock-breeding and irrigation used in China.  Stonehenge, England, a center for religious Worship is erected.  Bellows were used in India allowing for higher furnace temperatures.

2000 to 1800 BC (circa)
            The book of Job was written about this time.  Job is the first book of the bible to be written.  This book gives insight to the work of Satan. Addresses the question, Why do the righteous suffer?  Possibly written by Job and addresses the people of that time as well as today.  
            Prologue In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters,  and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.   Setting:  The land of Uz, probably located northeast of Palestine, near desert land between Damascus and the Euphrates River. 
            In Summary: Satan noticed the man named Job who's was most favored by God.  Satan wanted to test Job and tried to convince God that Job didn't really want to follow Him.  Satan asked God for permission to test Job, and God told Satan that was OK but just don't take his life.  Job became really sick and had boils all over his body.  He had to lay in bed the whole time.  In the mean time he lost his wife, children, home, and all worldly possessions.  Job had three friends tried to convince him that he had sinned, and that his sin had resulted in his suffering.  They contended that God would never let a righteous man suffer.  Elihu comes on the scene and doesn't agree with Job's three friends, stating that Job's failure came when he attributed righteousness to himself, rather than to God, his Creator.  It is then that God speaks and challenges Job, who had dared to question God.  Job responds to the Lord in repentance.  God responds by acknowledging Job's repentance, and by stating His anger against Job's three friend,  "My wrath is against (Eliphaz) and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." Job 42;7b  It is interesting of mention again that God does Not address Elihu in any manner, or consider him in the same company as Job's three friends.  For God says, "you and your two friends."  God tells Job's three friends to gather animals for a burnt offering, and to go to Job for intercessory Prayer.   God goes further to state He will accept the prayers of Job and not deal harshly with his friends.  Because God told Job's friends that they must go to Job in prayer for mercy, it is clear that God and Job's relationship has been restored.  Next in the timeline is the response of Job's acquaintances. His brothers and sisters, and all those who knew him came to his house for a feast, consoled him, and showed him compassion for all that he had endured.  In the end, God restored all that Job had lost, and gave Job twice as much as he had before.  The Lord blessed him with a long life, and with seven more sons, and three more daughters who were the most beautiful women in all the land.  Satan was proved wrong, and God's righteousness had prevailed!

        Job 19:25-27: :
           25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;  27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!

        Job 42:16-17
            'And after Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his son' sons, four generations.  And Job died, and old man and full of days."

1929 BC
            Jacob flees to Haran.

1915 BC circa
            Joseph was born.

1900 BC
            The Egyptians use irrigation systems to control Nile River floods.
           The spoked wheel was invented in the ancient Near East.  
           Horses were used to pull vehicles.

1898 BC
            Joseph was sold into slavery.

1885 BC
            Joseph rules Egypt.

1805 BC
            Joseph dies.  

1750 BC
            Babylonian mathematicians already understand cube and square root.  Hammurapi of Babylon provides first of all legal codes.

1700 BC
            Egyptian papyrus document describes medical and surgical procedures.

1526 BC (circa)  
            Moses was born.

1500 BC (circa)
             Sundials were used in Egypt.  A Mexican Sun-Pyramid was built.

1446 BC (circa)
            The Exodus from Egypt.

1445 BC (circa)
            The Ten Commandants were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  Yom Kippur was first observed following the second time God gave Moses the tablets.

1445-1405 BC
            The book of Genesis was written to record God's creation of the world and His desire to have a people set apart to worship Him.  It was written by Moses to the People of Israel.  God created the sky, seas and land.  He created the plants, animals, fish, and birds.  But He created human beings in His own image.  At times, others may treat us disrespectfully.  But we can be certain of out dignity and worth because we have been created in the image of God.
  
            The book of Exodus was written to record the events of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and development as a nation.  It was written by Moses to the People of Israel.  When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God heard their cries and rescued them.  We can be confident that God still hears the cries of his people.  Just as He delivered the Israelites from their captors, He delivers us from sin, death and evil.  After crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites became quarrelsome and discontent.  Like the Israelites, we find it easy to complain and be dissatisfied.  Christians still have struggles, but we should never allow difficulties and unpleasant circumstances to turn us away from trusting God.  God revealed His law to the Israelites at Sinai.  Through the law, they learned more about what God is like and how he expected His people to live.  The law is still instructional for us, for it exposes our sin and shows us God's standard for living.

            The book of Leviticus was written as a handbook for the priests and Levites outlining their duties of worship and a guidebook of holy living for the Hebrews.  It was written by Moses to the People of Israel.  The book of Leviticus begins where the book of Exodus ends -- at the foot of Mount Sinai, and the tabernacle has been completed and God ws ready to teach the people how to worship there.  The Tent of Meeting was smaller structure inside the larger tabernacle.  The Tent of Meeting contained the sanctuary in one part and the Most Holy Place with the ark in another part.  These two sections were separated by a curtain.  God revealed Himself to Moses in the Most Holy Place.  In Exodus 33:7 mentions a "tent of meeting" where Moses met God before the tabernacle was constructed.    

            The book of Numbers was written to tell the story of how Israel prepared to enter the promise land, how they sinned and were punished.  It was written by Moses to the People of Israel.  
    Setting: Because the Israelites are unwilling to enter the land of Canaan, their entire generation is forced to wander in the Desert of Sinai for 38 years.  Summary:  Reading a book titled "Numbers" may sound about as exciting as reading a dictionary or paging through a phone book, but get ready for a surprise: this book is loaded with powerful stories.  The Bible says it graphically illustrates what happens when people sin, but it also exemplifies hope for those who desire God's mercy and want to experience His faithfulness.  The book of Numbers reveals a God of devastating wrath who also hold his arms wide open for those who repent of their sin and turn to Him. Within this book you'll find the Israelites' repeated cycles of sin, judgment, and repentance.  You'll see not only human failure but also God's patient and merciful response.  This book show the lengths to which God goes to love and rescue His people.  


            The book of Deuteronomy was written to tell the story of how Israel prepared to enter the promise land, how they sinned and were punished.  It was written by Moses and Joshua to Israel specifically to the generation entering the Promise Land.  
     Setting:  In a series of farewell messages, Moses exhorts the new generation of Israelites to live as his obedient people in the promised land.  Summary:  As you read the 34 chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, you'll see how God's people dealt not only with hardship, testing, and doubt but also with promise, hope, and trust.  It tells us that faith is not automatic or mechanical.  Faith becomes personal and active when it springs from a living relationship with a loving God.  The Bible says the message of Deuteronomy can be summed up this way: devote yourself whole heartedly to God.  In the book, Moses commands his readers to "love the Lord you God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."  He challenged the people to faithfully obey the Lord and reject all forms of idolatry.  He called on the new generation to formally renew the earlier covenant with God that their parents had broken. 
  

                                                                                     Note:  The first five books of the Bible excluding the book of Job (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are called the Torah and the Pentateuch.
1410-450 BC
            The book of Psalms was written to provide poetry for the expression of praise, worship, and confession to God.  The book was written to the people of Israel by David who wrote 73 Psalms, Asaph, David's worship leader wrote 12 Psalms, sons of Korah a major Levite family wrote 11 Psalms, Unknowns wrote 50 Psalms, Solomon wrote 2 Psalms, Moses wrote 1 Psalm, Ethan the Ezrahite wrote 1 Psalm (Psalm 89), and Heman the Ezrahite wrote 1 Psalm (Psalm 88).  
    Setting: As stated previously the book of Psalms contains ancient Israel's favorite hymns and prayers, which were used in their worship of God, the Great King.  Summary:  The book of Psalms is a collection of 150 ancient Hebrew songs and Prayers.  As the Bible says, Psalms give voice to personal feelings, they are poetry, not doctrinal essays.  The psalmists frequently were interested in how something felt more than what it meant.  Think of the psalms as entries in a diary: they reflect people's most intimate encounters with God.  Watch for figures of speech, exaggerations, and repetitions.  Poetic language requires that you read with your heart as well as you mind.  The Bible says the various psalms help us see that God responds to us in our emotional highs and lows.  

1406 BC (circa)
            Hebrews enter Canaan.

1405-1385 BC
            The Book of Joshuawas written during this time frame.  The main goal of the book was to give the history of Israel's conquest of the Promised land.  It was written to the people of Israel by Joshua.  
    Setting:  God enables Joshua to lead the armies of Israel to victory over the Canaanites in the promised land.  Summary: Have you ever wished for a second chance?  Maybe you squandered a rare opportunity.  Maybe you tried something, but your attempt failed.  Or maybe you wasted a precious gift or a valued friendship.  The Bible says the book of Joshua reminds us that God often offers us a second chance.  Though the Israelites failed to enter the promised land the first time because of their lack of faith, and though they wasted 40 years because of their failure, God gave the next generation another opportunity.  The Israelites had learned their lesson, and the results were different the second time around.  In the book we also learn more about God, including His purposes and how He works in human lives.  The book of Joshua is where we're told to "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."   

1400 BC
            First Period of Chinese Literature.  Intricate clock used in Egypt.

1380 BC
            The Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete was partially destroyed by and earthquake.

1375 BC
            Judges begin to rule in Israel

1334
            King Tutankhamen was born.in Amarna, Egypt.  He was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the 18th Dynasty during the New Kingdom of Egyptian history.

1325 BC (circa)
            Egyptian King Tutankhamen dies and is buried an immense treasure laden tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1250 BC
            Silk fabrics are manufactured in China.

1209 BC                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
            Deborah becomes Israel's judge.

1200 BC
            Labor strike in Thebes (Now known as Luxor).  The first Chinese Dictionary.

1183 BC
            Destruction of Troy during the Trojan War.

1175 BC (circa)
            The Philistines first appeared in the area known as Canaan.

1162 BC
            Gideon becomes Israel's judge.

1080 BC (circa)
            Samuel was born to Hannah and his father Elkanah.  Hannah was with out child and she made a vow to the Lord that if He would give her a child she would bring him to the temple, when he was ready, and be an understudy under Eli the High Priest.  She did that and Samuel became the last Judge that Israel had.  Samuel appointed Saul to be Israel's first King, as the people wanted.  Before Saul died, Samuel anointed David as King as directed by God.

1079 BC (circa)
            King Saul was born.  He was the first king of the United Kingdom of Israel.  He was anointed by the prophet Samuel and reigned from Gibeah.  King Saul reigned for 42 years. During a battle between Israel and the Philistines at Mont Gilboa, King Saul was critically wounded and his three sons were killed.  During this time he fell on his sword and died, to avoid capture in the battle.  Saul could be impulsive, acting unwisely.  His jealousy of David drove him to madness and a thirst for revenge.  More than once, King Saul disobeyed God's instructions, thinking he new better.  The succession to his throne was contested by Ish-bosheth, his only surviving son, and his son-in-law David, who eventually prevailed.  The main account of Saul's life and reign is found in the Books of 1st and 2nd Samuel.  He died in the year,1007 BC, at the age of 72.

1050 BC
            Shiloh was where the tabernacle had been set up by the conquest of Canaan.  It was destroyed  by the Philistines.
            Saul became Israel's first king.

1043 BC (circa)
            The book of Judges was written during this time.  The purpose of the book was to show that God's judgment against sin is certain, and His forgiveness of sin are just as certain for those who repent.  It was written for the People of Israel by possibly Samuel.  
    Setting:  In danger of losing the promised land, the Israelites are delivered again and again by God through leaders known as "judges."  Summary:  Covering a period of about 350 years in the centuries before Christ, the book of Judges is filled with stories as sensational and dramatic as any of today's headlines.  The Bibles says that, in terms of sheer spectacle--gruesome murders, sexual exploits, superhuman feats of strength, bizarre mutilation--not tabloid of today could offer you more.  But no tabloid could offer the eternal truth you'll find within these stories.  The book of Judges says, "When they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer"(3:9).  It shows what happened when Israel repeatedly slid into moral anarchy, and it highlights God's merciful deliverance when His people cry out to Him in repentance.   

1040BC
            David was born during this year.  He was the youngest son of Jesse.  God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse who had 7 sons and Samuel was sent to anoint one of his sons as King of Israel.  Samuel looked at all Jesse's 7 sons and God told Samuel not one of these so Samuel asked if he had any other sons and Jesse said the youngest son David who was out tending the sheep.  Samuel asked Jesse to go get David, which he did and when David showed up God said to Samuel that he was the one.  So Samuel anointed David as the new King of Israel after Saul was done with his office.  David died in the year 970 and is buried in Jerusalem near The Citadel and the Upper Room..

1030-1010 BC (circa)
            The book of Ruth was written during this time.  The book of Ruth was written to show how three people remained strong in character and true to God when the society around them was collapsing.  The author of the book remains unknown and was written to the people of Israel.
   Setting: Ruth, a Moabite woman, proves to be a model of faithfulness in Israel during the period of the judges.  Summary: The events in the book of Ruth probably took place during the period covered during in the book of Judges.  The Bible says that, though it recounts a ancient time, the book of Ruth raises questions that are surprisingly modern and seemingly ever-present.  Is God good?  Does He care about me?  It describes the wrenching story of a suffering woman.  Naomi, like Job, was a follower of God who endured a barrage of tragedies that left her looking at God from rock bottom.  God answered Naomi's despair through Ruth, Naomi's foreign-born daughter-in-law, who, along with the wealthy landowner Boaz, displayed God's sacrificial love that far exceeds the limits of ordinary human love.  Ruth reminds us that even during the darkest circumstances, when doubts about God overwhelm us, God's love for us is true.   

1010 BC
            David becomes Israel's king.

1000 BC
            At the direction of God, the Bible recounts, Israelite King David built an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.                                         II Samuel 24:18

1000 BC
            City of Peking, China (now known as Beijing) was built.  Greek mythology fully developed.  California Indians build wood-reed houses.  Chinese mathematics utilizes root multiplication, geometry, proportions, and theory of motion,  Glazing of bricks and tiles begins in Near East.

971-965 BC
            The book of Song of Solomon was written during this time.   To tell the love between a bridegroom (King Solomon) and his bride, to affirm the sanctity of marriage to picture God's love for us.  The book was written to all people in general by Solomon.  
    Setting:  This wisdom writer celebrates the sexual union between a man and a woman as a joyful part of marital life in God's good creation.  Summary:  People wonder why Song of Songs, also known as Song of Solomon, is included in the Bible.  Some suggest this poem about love and sexual intimacy should only be read symbolically, as an allegory of the love relationship between either God and Israel or Christ and the church.  Others take it at face value, seeing it as depicting love in all its spontaneity, beauty, power, and exclusiveness--and experienced in its moments of separation and intimacy, anguish and ecstasy, tension and contentment.  There's value in both approaches.  The Bible says Song of Songs is a beautiful picture of physical and relational love.  Its highly sensuous and suggestive imagery drawn from nature applauds sexuality as a normal part of marital life to be experienced as God intends it in His good creation.   

971-686 BC (circa)
            The book of Proverbs was written during this time to apply divine wisdom to daily life and to provide moral instruction..  It was addressed to the people of Israel and written by Solomon and others.  Setting:  Proverbs describes the importance of loving wisely and in the fear of the Lord as opposed to following the seductive path of folly.  Summary:  From daytime talk shows to advice columns and self-help books, our culture is glutted with information--but often starved for wisdom.  The complexity of life requires practical counsel that is also meaningfully spiritual.  Proverbs offers this spiritual depth to issues like managing money, the dangers of adultery, learning how to identify true friends, and so much more.  Here you'll find wisdom that works and insights that won't wear out.  The Bible says pay close attention to differing outcomes of those who follow God's wisdom and those who don't.  And as you read Proverbs, watch for contrasting issues such as foolishness and wisdom, laziness and diligence, adultery and faithfulness, and true and false friendships.  Look for principles that build strong marriages, under gird faithful parenting, and establish good relationships on the job.  

970 BC
            Solomon becomes Israel's king.  The Kingdom of Israel divides.     

960 BC (circa)
            King Solomon, David's son, built the first temple on Mount Moriah.   Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the temple in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount also known as Mount Zion, before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BC.  During the kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, and housed the Ark of the Covenant.

959 BC
            First Temple in Jerusalem was completed.

950 BC
            Gold vessels and jewelry popular in northern Europe.

940-931 BC
            The book of Ecclesiastes was written during this time to spare future generations the bitterness of learning through their own experiences that life without God is meaningless.   It was written to all people in general by Solomon.  Ecclesiastes presents us a naturalistic vision of life--one that sees life through distinctively human eyes--but ultimately recognizes the rule and reign of God in the world.  This more humanistic quality has made the book especially popular among younger audiences today, men and women who have seen more than their fair share of pain and instability in life but who still cling to their hope in God.  The book like much of life, presents a journey from one point to another.  Solomon articulated his starting point early in the book: "Vanity of vanities! chapter 1 verse 2 indicating the utter futility and meaninglessness of life as he saw it.  Nothing made sense to him because he had already tried any number of remedies; pleasure, work, and intellect to alleviate his sense of feeling lost in the world.     Borrowed from Chuck Swindol.

931-722 BC
            The book of 1 Samuelwas written during this time to record the life of Samuel, Israel's last judge, the decline of Saul, Israel's first king and the prep for David Israel's greatest king.   Overview: Israel has not heard from God in decades.  The priests are corrupt.  The nearby nations threaten the land's safety.  Even Eli, the high priest and judge of Israel, is not faithfully serving God and the people.  Israel needs more than a judge.  Israel needs to hear from God again, Israel needs a prophet. So God gives them Samuel.  Samuel serves the people as a prophet and judge.  He speaks the word of the Lord to the people, and teaches them how to live as the people of God.  But when Samuel grows old and Israel's enemies attack, the people demand that Samuel appoint a king.  Samuel advises the people to trust in God and not in human leadership, but the people do not listen; they are determined to have a king rule over them and deliver them from the enemy.  So God gives them Saul.  Saul is a foolish, selfish, cowardly king.  He ignores the word of the Lord and craves the approval of men.  He disobeys God several times, oversteps his duties, and puts the people at odds with god and each other.  King Saul does not keep the Law of Moses, and does not direct the Israelites to live as god's holy people.  So God gives them David.  David is a "man after (God's) own heart."  He is a skilled warrior, musician, and leader of men; a man who trusts in God and encourages his countrymen to act like God' people.  David's famous defeat of Goliath makes him a popular, famous figure in Israel.  Saul fears that David will seize his kingdom eventually, and spends the rest of his life hunting David down.          Copied from a article by Jeffery Kranz.
 
            The book of 2 Samuel to record the history of David's reign. The book was written to the people of Israel by an unknown author. The Book of 2 Samuel continues the message of 1 Samuel.  It is given over entirely to the reign of David.  The life and times of David are important because he is the ancestor of Jesus.  It shows that government of this world in the hands of man is a failure.  

930 BC
            Kingdom of Israel divides.   Judah consisted of 2 tribes in the south, with their capital, Jerusalem and Israel consisted of the other 10 tribes with Samaria as their capitol.

900 BC
            Celts invade Britain.  Assyrians invent inflatable skins for soldiers to cross rivers.

The prophet Elijah was born

875 BC
            Elijah prophesies in Israel.

874 BC
            Ahab becomes Israel's king.

853 BC 
            King Ahab dies in battle.

850 BC
            Evidence found of highly developed metal and stone sculptures in Africa.

850-840 BC
            The book of Obadiah was written during this time to show that God judges those who have harmed His people.  The book was written to those in the Southern Kingdom by the prophet Obadiah...

848 BC
            Elisha prophesies in Israel. Elijah's ministry transfers to Elisha.

841 BC  
             Jehu becomes King of Israel.

835 BC
            Joash becomes Judah's king.

835-796 BC
            The book of Joel was written during this time to warn Judah of God's impending judgment because of its sins and to urge the people to turn back to God.  The book was written to the people of Judah by Joel, son of Pethuel.
            

814 BC
            Founding of Carthage, a Phoenician trading post.  

800 BC
            Development of Caste system in India.  Babylonian and Chinese astronomers understand planetary movements.  Spoked wheels used in Europe.  Homer writes Iliad and Odyssey.  Ice skating a popular sport in northern Europe.

797 BC
            Elisha's ministry ends.

793 BC
            Jeroboam II becomes King of Israel. (Northern Kingdom)

793 BC
            Jonah becomes a prophet.

776 BC
            First known date of the Olympic games that was held in Olympia, Greece..  Back to 438 BC

775 BC (circa)
            The book of Jonah was written during this time to show the extent of God's grace - the message of salvation is for all people.  The book was written The People of Israel by Jonah, son of Amittal.

760 BC
            Amos became a prophet.

753 BC
            Hosea became a prophet.
            Traditional date for founding of city of Rome

750 BC (circa)
            The book of Amos was written during this time to pronounce God's judgment upon Israel, the northern kingdom, for its complacency, idolatry and oppression ot the poor.  The book was written to The Northern Kingdom of Israel by the prophet Amos.

750-710 BC
            The book of Hosea was written during this time to illustrate God's love for His sinful people. (Hosea means salvation.)  The book was written to The Northern Kingdom of Israel by the prophet Hosea, son of Beeri.

742 BC
            Micah became a prophet.

741 BC (circa)
            The prophet Isaiah was born.  He died in the year 681 BC (according to the footnotes in the NIV study Bible.)

740BC
            The year that King Uzziah Died.  Isaiah's ministry begins.

735-710 BC
            The book of Micah was written to warn God's people that judgment is coming and to offer pardon to all who repent.  The book was written to The Northern Kingdom of Israel by the prophet Micah.

732 BC
            Tiglath - Pileser³, king of Assyria and his army invaded Moab.  The same year they captured Damascus capital of Aram and annexed the Northern Kingdom to Assyria.  

722 BC - Israel was defeated and carried away into Assyria.  The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs, Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V.  The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty-year demise of Israel's northern ten-tribe kingdom, although they did not overtake the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken.  The tribes exiled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes.

715 BC
            Hezekiah became king of Judah.

701 BC
            Invasion of Judah by Sennacherib of Assyria.  185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain by the angel of the Lord while camped outside of Jerusalem laying siege to the city.

700 BC
            False teeth invented in Italy.

700-681 BC
           The book of Isaiah was written to call the nation of Judah back to God and to tell of God's salvation through the Messiah.  It was written to the country of Israel and surrounding pagan nations by Isaiah, son of Amoz.

697 BC
            Manassah became king of Judah.

689 BC (circa)
            Babylon was destroyed by Sennacherib of Assyria.   

663 BC (circa)
            Nahum became a prophet of God in the Southern Kingdom (Judah).  Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, is the subject of Naham's prophecy.  The news of its coming destruction was a relief for Judah, who was subject to Assyrian domination.  No longer would Judah be forced to pay tribute as insurance against invasions.  Judah was comforted to know that God was still in control.  Nineveh is an example to all rulers and nations of the world today.  God is sovereign over even those who are seemingly invincible.  We can be confident that God's power and justice will one day conquer all evil.  Read all three chapters in the book of Nahum in the Old Testament.

660 BC
            Japan established as a nation.  National Foundation day;11, February.

655 BC (circa) 
            The Prophet Jeremiah was born.  In the world's eyes, Jeremiah looked totally unsuccessful.  He had no money, family, or friends.  He prophesied the destruction of the nation, the capital city, and the temple, but the political and religious leaders would not accept or follow his advice.  No group of people liked him or listened to him.  Yet as we look back, we see that he successfully completed the work God gave him to do.  Success must never be measured by popularity, fame, or fortune, for these are temporal measures.  King Zedekiah, for example, lost everything by pursuing selfish goals.  God measures our success with the yardsticks of obedience, faithfulness, and righteousness.  If you are faithfully doing the work God gives you, you are successful in His eyes.  From the foot notes of the Application Life Study Bible in the Book of Jeremiah. NIV

650 BC (circa)
            The book of Nahum was written during this time to pronounce God's judgment on Assyria and to comfort Judah with this truth.  The book of Nahum was written to the people of Nineveh and Judah by the Prophet Nahum.  His name means "comforter."

640 BC
            Zephaniah becomes a prophet.  Josiah became king of Judah.

635-625 BC
            The book of Zephaniah was written during this time to shake the people of Judah out of their complacency and urge them to return to God.   The book of Zephaniah was written to The people of Judah - Southern Kingdom by the Prophet Zephaniah.

627 BC
            Jeremiah becomes a prophet.  He predicted the 70 years of captivity 20 years before it began.  He preached the same message for 23 years and was continually rejected.

622 BC
            Book of the Law was found in the Temple.

621 BC (circa)
            After Babylon became strong again, the Babylonians conquered Assyria.

615-605 BC
            The book of Habakkuk was written during this time to show that God is still in control of the world despite the apparent triumph of evil.  The book was written to The people of Judah - Southern Kingdom by the Prophet Habakkuk.

612 BC
            Downfall of Assyria.- Babylon overt roughs Assyria

609 BC
            Good king Josiah reigned only 3-months before taken away to Egypt.  He world be the first ruler to die in exile.

605 BC
            Nebuchadnezzar came to power in Babylon.  He reigned until 562 BC, the longest reign of any king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

605 BC
            The first wave of destruction of Jerusalem.  Daniel taken captive. From the foot notes of the Application Life Study Bible in the Book of Jeremiah. NIV  Babylon defeats Egypt.

600 BC
            Temple of Artemis was built in Ephesus, Turkey.  It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

597 BC
            The second wave of destruction of Jerusalem.  From the foot notes of the Application Life Study Bible in the Book of Jeremiah. NIV

593 BC 
            Ezekiel became a prophet.  He was born in 622 BC.  He was born into a priesthood lineage from the Kingdom of Judah.  At the age of 25, he was exiled into Babylon. He was among the thousands of young men deported from Judah to Babylon.  He was married and his wife died 9 years after the exile.  Ezekiel prophesied to those already exiled in Babylon.  Ezekiel's story is told in the book of Ezekiel and II Kings 24:10-17.

590-570 BC
            The book of Ezekiel was written during this time.  The book was written to announce God's judgment on Israel and other nations and to foretell the eventual salvation of God's people.  It was written to the Jews in captivity in Babylonia by Ezekiel, son of Buzi.
            Inaugural Vision: In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin— the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians.  There the hand of the Lord was on him.

587 BC
            The Siege of Jerusalem.  
            The third wave of destruction of Jerusalem.  From the foot notes of the Application Life Study Bible in the Book of Jeremiah. NIV                           Back to 960BC

586 BC
           The book of Lamentations was written to teach people that to disobey God is to invite disaster, and to show that God suffers when His people suffer.  The book was written to The exiled people of Judah in five brief chapters by the Prophet Jeremiah.  Lamentations gives us a portrait of the bitter suffering the people of Jerusalem experienced when sin caught up with them and God turned His back on them.  Every material goal they had lived for collapsed.  But although God turned away from them because of their sin, He did not abandon them - that was their great hope.  Despite of their sinful past, God would restore them if they returned to Him.  Hope is found only in the Lord.  Thus our grief should turn us toward Him, not away from Him.  
            Judah (southern kingdom) falls of Babylon. 

586-579 BC
            The book of Jeremiah was written during this time period to urge God's people to turn from their sins and back to God.  It was written to Judah and its capital city Jerusalem by The Prophet Jeremiah.  From Chapter 1:1-3 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.  The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,  and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

563 BC
   Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism was born in India.  He died sometime between 563 and 480 BC in Nepal.

562 BC
            King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon dies.

561-538 BC
            The book of 1 Kings was written during this time period to contrast the lives of those who live for God and those who refuse to do so through the history of the kings of Israel and Judah.  The book was written to the people of Israel by unknown authors.
        In his old age, Solomon forsakes God, worships his wife's gods, and angers the Lord.  Almost as soon as Solomon dies, the kingdom erupts in civil war.  Years pass, foreigners chip away at the kingdom's affluence, and each successive king is worse than the last until Ahab inherits the throne of Israel.
            The book of 2 Kings was written during this time period to demonstrate the fate that awaits all who refuse to make God their true leader.  The book was written to the people of Israel by unknown authors.            Second Kings continues the history of the divided kingdom, picking up the story around 853 BC. In 722 BC, the powerful nation of Assyria invaded the northern kingdom, scattering and taking captive the people of Israel. Only Judah remained intact. But then Assyria suffered a stunning fall to the Babylonians, who took the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC.

559-530 BC 
            King Cyrus ruled.  He was born in 600 or 576 BC in Anshan, Persia.  He died in a battle in 530 BC.

551 BC
            Confucius, famous Chinese scholar was born on September 28, of this year..

542 BC
            November 20, The Madaba Map was dedicated on this date in the church of St. George in Madaba, Jordan.  

539 BC
            Cyrus, King of Persia, took the city of Babylon by surprise and brought the nation to it's knees.  The complete destruction of the city was accomplished later by other Persian kings.  They killed Belshazzer, the last ruler of Babylon.

538 BC
            The first group of Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem.

536-530 BC
            The book of Daniel was written during this time in history to give a historical account of the faithful Jews who lived in captivity and to show how God is in control of heaven and earth.  It was written to the other captives in Babylon by Daniel.  The overall theme of the book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history, and the theme of the tales in chapters 1–6 is that God is sovereign over all earthly kings.  Daniel 1 introduces the fundamental question that runs through the entire book, how God may continue to work his plans when all seems lost.
 
532 BC
            Construction started on the Hagia Sophia in what is now known as Istanbul, Turkey.  From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as a cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was the cathedral of the Latin Empire.  The building was converted to a mosque from May 29, 1453 until 1934, when it was secularized.  It was opened as a museum on February 1, 1935.

520 BC
            August 29,  Haggai 1:13-15 NIV~ Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people, "I am with you," declares the Lord.  So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people.  The came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.

520 BC 
            The Bible book of Haggai was written during this time.  The book was written to call the people to complete the rebuilding of the temple.  The book was addressed to the people living in Jerusalem and those from exile and written by The Prophet Haggai.                                                   The prophet Haggai recorded his four messages to the Jewish people of Jerusalem in 520 BC, eighteen years after their return from exile in Babylon (538 BC). Haggai 2:3 seems to indicate that the prophet had seen Jerusalem before the destruction of the temple and the exile in 586 BC, meaning he was more than seventy years old by the time he delivered his prophecies.  From these facts, the picture of Haggai begins to come into focus. He was an older man looking back on the glories of his nation, a prophet imbued with a passionate desire to see his people rise up from the ashes of exile and reclaim their rightful place as God’s light to the nations.

516 BC (circa)
            The Jewish Second Temple was a important shrine which stood in Jerusalem between 516 BC and 70 AD.  It replaced the First Temple, which was destroyed in 586 BC when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon.  Both temples were centers of Jewish sacrificial worship, and are still important today in the politics and history of Judaism.

509 BC
            Rome becomes a republic.

490 BC
            First time Greek men choose short haircuts.

480-470 BC
            The book of Zechariah was written during this time. The book was written to give hope to God's people by revealing God's future deliverance through the Messiah.   It primarily addressed the Jews who had returned from their captivity, and written by The Prophet Zechariah.          Zechariah, a young man, especially when compared to his contemporary Haggai, came alongside the older prophet to deliver messages from the Lord to the Jewish remnant recently returned from Babylon.  While Haggai’s overall message had more of a cautionary tone to it (pointing out the Jews’ sin and self-focus),  Zechariah emphasized a tone of encouragement to the struggling Israelites trying to rebuild their temple.

479 BC
            Esther became Queen of the Persian Kingdom.  She was married to the Persian king Ahasuerus.  The Persian Queen Esther (492-460 BC), born as a Jewish exile named Hadassed, eventually became the queen of Persia, which during her lifetime was the greatest empire in the known world.  She was married to King Ahasuerus after he divorced the former queen for disobedience.  Esther would intercede in behalf of the Jewish people of the kingdom and prevent their annihilation.  Read and listen to the book of Esther starting with Chapter One.

473 BC
            First feast of Purim.

469 BC
            Socrates, philosopher of the ancient world was born about this time.

460 BC
            Birth of Democritus, who introduced an atomic theory by arguing that all bodies are made of indivisible and unchangeable atoms.

458 BC
            Ezra returns to Jerusalem.

457 BC
            The Golden Age in Athens, Greece begins.

457-444 BC
            The book of Ezra was written during this time.  The book was written to show God's faithfulness and the way He kept His promise to restore His people to their land.  Ezra addressed the exiles who returned from captivity and was probably written by The Priest Ezra.
            Ezra was a direct descendant of Aaron the chief priest (7:1–5), thus he was a priest and scribe in his own right.  His zeal for God and God’s Law spurred Ezra to lead a group of Jews back to Israel during King Artaxerxes’s reign over the Persian Empire (which had since replaced the Babylonian Empire that originally exiled the people of Judah).

455 BC (circa)
            Nehemiah led the third group of exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem with expressed permission from King Artaxerxes of Persia to rebuild the embattled city walls.

450-430 BC
            The book of 1 Chronicles was written during this time.  The book was written to unify God's people, to trace the Davidic line, and to teach that genuine worship ought to be the center of individual and national life. The book was addressed to the exiles who returned from captivity and according to      Jewish tradition was written by Ezra. Several indications throughout the book reveal the author’s reliance on a variety of source materials—“annals,” “books,” and “records”—which are cited as dependable historical documentation.  “Whoever the author was, he was a meticulous historian who carefully utilized official and unofficial documents.”
            The book of 2 Chronicles was written during this time to unify the nation around true worship of God by showing God's standard for judging kings. The sins of evil kings were exposed.  The book was addressed to the exiles who returned from captivity and according to Jewish tradition was written by Ezra.  Second Chronicles covers the time from Solomon’s ascension to the throne (971 BC) until the southern kingdom of Judah was finally carried into exile in Babylon in 586 BC. The focus of the book is on Judah. The author was more concerned with telling the story of David’s descendants, who reigned over Judah, than with the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. The centrality of Jerusalem, where the temple was located, falls in line with the book’s overarching focus on the priesthood as well.

450-331 BC
            The book of Esther was written during this time to demonstrate God's sovereignty and His loving care for His people.  The book was addressed to the people of Israel and written possibly by Mordeciai.  The book is named for the “star” of the story, a young Jewish girl named Hadassah who was taken from her guardian, Mordecai, and forced to compete for the affection of the king. This unlikely contestant for a beauty pageant was crowned queen of Persia and renamed Esther, meaning “star.”
           Not all of the Jews returned to Jerusalem when Cyrus issued his decree allowing them to do so.  Many Jews stayed in Persia and throughout the world where they had settled during the Exile.  Esther is one such woman.  The book of Esther is an example of God's divine guidance and care over our lives.  God's sovereignty and power are seen throughout this book.  Although we may question certain circumstances in our lives, we must have faith that God is in control, working through both the pleasant and difficult times so that we can serve Him effectively.          

445 BC
            Nehemiah rebuilds the embattled city walls of Jerusalem.
            
438 BC
            The Parthenon in Athens was completed.  Work started on it in 447 BC.  A Greek sculptor named Phidias made a 60-foot-high statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  The statue was located in the Sanctuary of Olympia in Olympia, Greece home of the first Olympic Games.  See 776 BC

433-424 BC
            The book of Malachi was written during this time to confront the people with their sins and to restore their relationship with God.  The book addressed the people of Jerusalem and was written by The Prophet Malachi.  The final book of the Old Testament, Malachi received its name from its author Malachi. . In Hebrew, the name comes from a word meaning “messenger,” which points to Malachi’s role as a prophet of the Lord, delivering God’s message to God’s people.¹ Malachi offered no other identifying information about himself, leaving out markers typical of other prophets such as his father’s name or the current leader of Israel.

430 BC
            Malachi becomes the last of the minor prophets as well as the last book in the Old Testament.

424-400 BC
            The book of Nehemiah was written during this time to record the history of the Jewish people's return to Jerusalem after captivity, telling how the walls were rebuilt and the people renewed their faith.  The writer Nehemiah addressed the book to the exiles who returned from captivity.  The book of Nehemiah opens in the Persian city of Susa in the year 444 BC.  Later that year, Nehemiah traveled to Israel, leading the third of three returns by the Jewish people following their seventy years of exile in Babylon.   Most of the book centers on events in Jerusalem. 

399 BC
            Socrates condemned to death by an Athenian jury.

390 BC
            Aramaic begins to replace Hebrew as Jewish language.

384 BC
            Aristotle was born.

370 BC
            Plato writes his most famous book, "The Republic".

330 BC
            Alexander the Great defeats the Persian empire.

312 BC
            Romans build the first paved road, the "Appian Way," from Rome to Capua and on to Brindsi, in southeast Italy.  Its importance is indicated by its common name , recorded by Statius.     

241 BC
            Romans conquer Sicily and add their first non-Italian territory to the Roman empire.

220 BC
            This year started the construction of what is known now as the Great Wall of China.  Under Qin Shi Huang, section of earlier fortifications were joined together to form a united defense system against invasion from the north.  Construction continued up to the Ming Dynasty, when the Great Wall became the world's largest military structure.  Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance.   See 1368-1644

215 BC Circa
            The Great Wall of China built.

169 BC
            Temple of Jerusalem plundered by Antiochus IV.

146 BC
            The Building of the Via Egnatia.  The Via Egnatia was a Roman road that stretched from the Albanian port of Burrës on the Adriatic coast to Istanbul.  It carried commercial and military traffic across the Balkans and through Greece and Turkey sustaining the wealth of a Roman Empire.

134-104 BC
            About this time the Essenes lived in a settlement called Qumran, a mile inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in Israel.  It is said by some scholars they translated the Bible as was written then to Hebrew.
            Fast forward to the year 1947; a shepherd boy stumbled on a cave near the settlement of Qumran in Israel and in a cave some jars made of clay.  In one one of the clay jars he found a manuscript, which later was discovered to be the Book of Isaiah.  The manuscript can be viewed today in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.  See 1947

100 BC
            Julius Caesar, first emperor of Rome was born.

74/75 BC
            Herod the Great was born in and around this year in Idumea, an area south of Judea sometimes known as Edom.   He was a Roman client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom.   He has been described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis", "the evil genius of the Judean nation."  Herod built quite a few spectacular projects in Israel.  One was the harbor at Caesarea, another was a fortresses on Masada.  He also rebuilt the city of Samaria.  His most famous and ambitious projects was the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.  Recent findings suggest that the Temple Mount walls and Robinson's Arch may not have been completed until at least 20 years after his death, during the reign of Herod Agrippa II.  Herod died somewhere between the years 4 and 1 BC. in Jericho, Judea.  He was 69-75 years old when he died. 

55 BC
            Romans conquer England and make it part of the Roman empire until 442 AD.

51 BC
            Cleopatra becomes the last independent Egyptian ruler of the ancient world.  After her reign, Egypt became a province of the recently established Roman Empire.

37 BC
            Herod the Great made king of Judea by the Romans. 

19 BC (circa)
            Herod the Great rebuilt the second temple on The Temple Mount on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem.  In doing so Herod doubled the size of the Temple Mount.

18 BC (circa)
            Mary, the mother of Jesus was born.

10 BC
            Herod the Great, appointed by Rome as King of Judea. The grand limestone temple was dedicated by him about this year.  It was a renovation of the Second Temple built 500 years earlier when the Jews returned from Babylonian exile.  Jesus taught on the Temple Mount in the week before his death.  Herod was raised as a Jew.

5 BC
            John the Baptist was born in Jerusalem (Herodian kingdom)

            The interlude in our English Bible is scarcely noticeable. A simple turn of the page and you leave behind the Old Testament to enter the New Testament. The book of Matthew re-acquaints you with characters you've already come to know and admire; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and more. Yet a new character--indeed, a person who will claim to be the main character of the entire Bible--is now introduced: Jesus Christ. There is a period of 400 years plus, that separates the New Testament from the Old Testament. A lot of events went on during that time.

4BC (circa)
            Jesus Christ was born.  He was tried and sentenced to be crucified on a cross in the year 30 and was resurrected on the 3rd day.  He ascended into heaven 40 days after His crucifixion.
             Read a description of Jesus penned 600 years before He was born, written by the prophet Isaiah.
            "The life of our Lord Jesus Christ is of supreme importance to each believer.  He could not have died for our sins unless He had first left heaven and entered the human race through childbirth.  And His death would not have cleansed away our sins if He had not also been raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.   Almost as important are His miracles, His teachings, and the example of His sinless life.  Everything we can know with certainty about His life is revealed in the first four books of the New Testament (the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which comprise about 46 % of the New Testament."  Quote by Mr. Mike Reynolds  6/03/2011
            Herod the Great Dies.

The First Century

            The Apostle Matthew was born in the city of Nazareth. during this time period.  Date of birth is unknown.  He was a tax collector or toll gatherer before he met Jesus and became an Apostle.  He wrote his gospel in the Hebrew language, which was afterwards translated into Greek by James the Less.  The scene of his labors was Parthia, and Ethopia, in which latter country he suffered martyrdom, being slain with a halberd in the city of Nadabah in 60AD. (Couldn't find any information on the city of Nadabah, except is the country of Ethiopia)
            James the son of Alphaeus or James the less was born in the first part of the first century.  Date of birth is unknown.  He was called by Jesus to follow Him and be an Apostle. He was elected to the oversight of the churches of Jerusalem; and was the author of the epistle ascribed to James in the sacred canon.   At the age of ninety-four, he was beaten and stoned by the Jews; and finally had his brains dashed out with a fuller's club in 62AD. Another account says;  Later, because of his reputation for righteousness, Jewish leaders asked him to stand on the pinnacle of the temple and warn the people against the doctrine that Jesus had been resurrected and would come again.   When he did the opposite, they pushed him to the ground, stoned him, and beat him to death with a fuller's club.
            The Disciple Matthias was named by the eleven Apostles to take the place of Judas who betrayed Jesus.  Less is known about him than of most of the other disciples.  He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded in 80 AD   According to Acts, he had been with Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist until his Ascension.  He was one of the 120 disciples who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. 
            Andrew was a disciple of Christ and was born in the early part of this century.  He was one of the twelve main disciples of Jesus Christ and the brother of Simon Peter.  Andrew was the first apostle Jesus called and the first apostle to claim Jesus was the Messiah.  Like his brother Simon Peter and several of the other disciples, Andrew was a fisherman.  In Matthew 4:18-20 and Mark 1:16-20.  Jesus first encounters Andrew when he's fishing near the shore of the Sea of Galilee with Peter.  Tradition holds that Andrew was martyred by crucifixion in the Greek city of Patras around 60AD.  Like his brother, Peter, Andrew allegedly didn't consider himself worth to die in the same way as Jesus, and tradition claims he was bound -  not nailed -  to a cross which was hung in an X shape instead of a cross similar to a T.
            The apostle Jude was born sometime during the First Century.  He was the brother of James and was commonly know as Thaddeus.  He was crucified at Edessa, Turkeyin 72 AD. 

1 AD
            The Apostle Peter was born (circa) in Bethesda.  He was an outspoken disciple (one of the twelve) of Jesus and founder of thechurch in Antioch which is now in the eastern part of Turkey.  Peter died in Rome, Italy between 64-66 where he elected to be crucified upside down on a cross  Peter felt he was unworthy to die in the same way as his Savior. He received his death sentence from the Emperor Nero.  He was martyred, supposedly, between 64-68 on Vatican Hill, Rome..
            Saddles were first used in Europe.

3AD
            James the Greatwas born in Bethsaida, and was one of the sons of Zebedee, the elder brother of John and relative of out Lord, for his mother Salome was cousin-german (old fashion term for cousin) to the Virgin Mary.  He was the second of the Christian leaders that suffered Martyrdom that took place after the death of Stephen.  He died in 44 AD in Jerusalem.  James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to tradition, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia
            The Apostle Philip was born in Bethsaida, Galiee, Roman Empire.  He was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament.  Later Christina traditions describe Philip as the apostle who preached at Greece, Syria, and Phrytia   He suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia.  He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified in 80 AD.
            John Mark was born during this year in Cyrene, Pantapolis of North Africa, according to Coptic tradition.  He wrote the 2nd book (Mark) in the New Testament.  Mark was born of Jewish parents of the tribe of Levi.  He is supposed to have been converted to Christianity by Peter, whom he served as a amanuensis, and under whose inspection he wrote his gospel in Greek language,.  Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria /, at the great solemnity of Serapis, their idol, ending his life under their merciless hands.  It has been recorded that he died in 68 AD.  

5 AD circa
            Paul was born in Tarsus, Cilicia, Roman Empire, which is now an eastern part of Turkey.  The apostle Paul (Saul) of Tarsus) a Roman citizen but from the tribe of Benjamin who would later become a Christian apostle after Paul met Jesus face to face on the road to Damascus.  He was proud of his Jewish Heritage and was schooled by a Pharisee named Gamaliel.  He was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains to face trial.  As he was approaching Damascus on the mission, a bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul!  Why are you persecuting me?  And the voice replied, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!  Now get up and go into the city (Damascus) and you will be told what you must do."  Saul was made blind by the light that shown down of him.  The Lord told Paul to go into Damascus to the house of Judas and stay there.  The men with him had to guide he as he could not see.  There was a believer in Damascus named Ananias and the Lord spoke to him in a vision,  The Lord said, "Go to the house of Judas and greet Saul for he is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as the people of Israel.  (Saul was also known as Paul as was a custom then to have dual names.)  After Acts 13:9 he was referred to as Paul.  During his time as a deliverer of the message from Jesus he suffered various persecutions at Jerusalem, Iconium, Lystra, Phillippi and Thessalonica. and made three missionary journeys before he was carried as a prisoner to Rome, for two years, and was then released.  He afterwards visited the churches of Greece and Rome, and preached the gospel in Spain and France, but when he was returning to Rome, he was apprehended by order of Nero, and was beheaded.  Fourteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul.  He died in 64-67AD in Rome, Italy at the age of 61-62.
            St.Stephen was born sometime during this year.  He was the first martyr of Christianity as told in the book of Acts, chapter six.  He was a deacon in the church in Jerusalem.  He made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him after which he was stoned to death.    Stephen died in 33-36 AD at the age of 26-32.  The following is a note from Foxes book of Martyrs: About two thousand Christians, with Nicanor, one of the seven deacons, suffered martyrdom during the "persecution which arose about Stephen>"
            John Mark was born during this year in Cyrene, Pantapolis of North Africa, according to Coptic tradition.  He wrote the 2nd book (Mark) in the New Testament.  Mark was born of Jewish parents of the tribe of Levi.  He is supposed to have been converted to Christianity by Peter, whom he served as a amanuensis, and under whose inspection he wrote his gospel in Greek language,.  Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria, at the great solemnity of Serapis their idol, ending his life under their merciless hands.  It has been recorded that he died in 68 AD.   

6/7 AD
            Judea becomes a Roman province;  Jesus visits the temple in Jerusalem as a boy.

14 AD
            Tiberius Caesar becomes Emperor of Judah.

26 AD
            John the Baptist's ministry begins.  John was a contrast in every respect --from his prolonged isolation to his abrupt public appearance, from his rugged wilderness life to his dramatic preaching and baptizing ministry.  He was born to a woman named Elizabeth, who could not have children, she also was a direct descendant of Aaron.  His father was Zechariah who was priest but ministered as a prophet.  He reached Jewish society by removing himself from it.
            Taken in part from the book "Twelve Unlikely Heroes Study Guide."  By John MacArthur.

26/27 
            Jesus begins his ministry.      

44-49 AD
            The book of James was written during this time to refute the Judaizers (who taught that Gentile believers must obey the Jewish law in order to be saved), and to call Christians to faith and freedom in Christ.  The book addressed the first-century Christians and written by the Apostle James, the brother of Jesus.  The apostle James was executed by King Herod Agrippa during this time span.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

46-48 AD
            During this time the Apostle Paul set out on his first missionary journey.  It was the shortest, in time and distance, of the first three, but it was nevertheless a very significant development in the history of the new Christian church.  It established Paul as a leader in the spreading of The Word of God.    See Acts 13:1-14:28.   
            St. Paul departed from Syrian Antioch (modern Antakya) and journeyed to Turkey where he stopped at Attalia (modern Antalya), Perge (where he preached for the first time in Asia), Iconium (modern Konya), Lystra and Derbe (modern Kerti Huyuk), establishing churches in Galatia and witnessing to both Jews and Gentiles.  On his return he retraced his journey visiting these churches.

48-50 AD
            The book of Galatians was written during this time to refute the Judaizers (who taught that Gentile believers must obey the Jewish law in order to be saved), and to call Christians to faith and freedom in Christ. The apostle Paul wrote Galatians in Antioch, which was then in Syria.  The book was written to the Christians in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, South Galatia.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

49-52 AD
            Paul's second missionary journey.  This was the most fruitful of Paul's missionary career, covering hundreds of miles and resulting in the planting of the gospel on European soil.  With Salias as his partner, Paul left Jerusalem and stopped at Syrian Antioch, then traveled overland for a brief stop at Tarsus, his hometown. Then they pushed on westward to visit and strengthen the young churches at Derbe and Lystra in Southern Galatia.  This is where Timothy joined him.  They also visited Iconium. They were prevented by the Holy Spirit from stopping in Asia, then proceeded to Antioch of Psidia and the city of Troas on the eastern shoreline of the Aegean Sea.  Here, through a vision, Paul was beckoned to enter the providence of Macedonian Greece (Thrace), the extreme southern tip of the European continent.  
            They set sail in Troas and landed at Neapolis, then went by land to Philippi. Here the Philippian jailer and others were converted.  Then moved on to Amphipolis, Thessalonica and Berea.  Then went on to Athens where he preached his famous sermon about the "Unknown God," on Mars Hill.  Then traveled on the Corinth.  Here Paul stayed about 1-1/2 year, supporting himself as a tentmaker with establishing a church.  Then they crossed the Aegean Sea to Ephesus, then made their way around the southern coast of Asia into the Mediterranean for the long trip back to Jerusalem.  

50 AD
         The first church council took place in Jerusalem.  A dispute arose when some Judeans taught that Gentile believer had to be circumcised to be saved.  Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to discuss this situation with the leaders there,  After the Jerusalem council made its decision that Gentiles did not need to become Jews to follow Jesus , Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch with the news.
            The city of London, England was founded.  
            The Romans first started using soap.

50-60 AD
            The book (Gospel) of Mark was written during this time to present the person, work, and teaching of Jesus.  John Mark was not one of the 12 disciples.  The Gospel was addressed to the Christians in Rome, where the book was written by John Mark.  "The Bible records more information about Mark than any of the other gospel writers aside from the apostle John.  Luke mentioned Mark’s name several times in Acts. A budding Jerusalem church met in his mother’s home. Mark also started the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas but went home early, though he later traveled with Barnabas to Cyprus for more mission work.  He became significant in the life of Paul, being one of the last people the apostle mentioned in his final letter (2 Timothy 4:11).  The Church of Ephesus was established on Paul's homeward journey to Jerusalem. The setting for the gospel:  The Roman empire under was under the rule of Tiberius Caesar.  The empire, with its common language and excellent transportation and communication systems, was ripe to hear Jesus' message, which spread quickly from nation to nation.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

50-60 AD
            The book (Gospel) of Matthew was written during this time to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal King and was addressed to primarily the Jews and was written by Matthew (Levi).  Setting: Matthew was a Jewish tax collector who became one of Jesus' disciples.  This Gospel forms the connecting link between the Old and New Testaments because of the emphasis on the fulfillment of prophecy.  In Matthew, Jesus teaches people what it means to be part of his kingdom, the “Kingdom of Heaven.”  He was betrayed and crucified, He rose again on the third day after he was crucified and commissioned His disciples to spread the good news that He taught while he was with them.  Matthew is filled with messianic language ("Son of David" is used through out) and Old Testament references (53 quotes and 76 other references).  This Gospel was not written as a chronological account; its purpose to present the clear evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, and Savior.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

51 AD 
            The book of 1 Thessalonians was written during this time to strengthen the Thessalonians Christians in their faith and give them the assurance of Christ's return.  The book was written by Paul and was written to the church at Thessalonica.  The church at Thessalonica was very young, having been established only two or three years before this letter was written.  The Thessalonian Christians needed to mature in their faith,.  In addition, their was a misunderstanding concerning Christ's second coming---some thought Christ would return immediately, thus, they were confused when their loved ones died because the expected Christ to return beforehand.  Also, believers were being persecuted.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.  

51-52 AD
            The book of 2 Thessalonians was written during this time to clear up the confusion about the second coming of Christ.  The book was written to the church at Thessalonica and was authored by the Apostle Paul.  Many in the church were confused about the timing of Christ's return.  Because of mounting persecution, they thought the day of the Lord must be imminent, and they interpreted Paul's first letter to say that the second coming would be at any moment.  In light of this misunderstanding, many persisted in being idle and disorderly, with the excuse of waiting for Christ's return.  This a follow-up letter to 1 Thessalonians.  In this letter, Paul indicated various events that must precede the second coming of Christ.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

53 AD 
            The Church of Ephesus was established on Paul's homeward journey to Jerusalem.

54 AD
            Nero becomes emperor of Rome.

53-58 AD
            Paul's third missionary journey:  he departed again from Syrian Antioch for Tarsus to revisit the churches in Derbe, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch.  He then traveled to Laodicea and to Ephesus where he remained for three years ministering "to the Jews first but also the the Greeks."  From there he proceeded to Smyrna, (modern day Izmir) and Pergamum.  Afterwards he visited Troas again on the way to Greece.  He re-entered Turkey with stops at Assos, Miylene, Samos, Miletus and Patara before returning to Ceaserea and Jerusalem.  See Acts 18:23 - 21:16  

55 AD
            The book of 1 Corinthians was written during this time to identify problems in the Corinthian church, to offer solutions, and to teach the believers how to live for Christ in corrupt society..  The book was addresses the church in Corinth and was written by Paul.  Corinth was a major cosmopolitan city, a seaport and major trade center --The most important city Achaia.  It was also filled with idolatry and immorality.  The church was largely made up of Gentiles.  Paul had established this church on his second missionary journey.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV

55-56 AD
              The book of 2 Corinthians was written during this time to affirm Paul's ministry, defend his authority as an apostle, and refute the false teachers in Corinth.  The book was written to the church in Corinth and authored by the Apostle Paul.  Paul had already written three letters to the Corinthians (two are now lost).  In 1 Corinthians (the second of these letters), he used strong words to correct and teach. Most of the church had responded in the right spirit; there were, however, those who were denying Paul's authority and questioning his motives.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

56 AD 
            The book of  Romans was written during this time to introduce Paul to the Romans and to give a sample of his message before he arrived in Rome.  The book was addressed to the Christians in Rome and was authored by the Apostle Paul.  Apparently Paul had finished his work in the east, and he planned to visit Rome on his way to Spain after first bringing a collection to Jerusalem for the poor Christians there.  The Roman church was mostly Jewish but also contained a great number of Gentiles.  Paul wrote Romans as an organized and carefully presented statement of his faith --it does not have the form of a typical letter.  He does, however, spend considerable time greeting people in Rome at the end of the letter.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

57-59 AD
            Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Caesarea is now a national park in Israel and a very interesting place to visit.  The amphitheater has been rebuilt and shows are held there regularly.  There are 81 national parks in Israel to date.

58 AD
              Paul was arrested in Jerusalem:  When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, zealous Jews incited a riot against him.  He was arrested by the Romans and remanded to the custody of the Procurator Felix in Caesarea,  Paul insisted on his right as a Roman citizen to be tried before an imperial court.  He was subsequently sent to Rome.

60-61 AD
           The book of Luke was written during this time to present an accurate account of the life of Christ and to present Christ as the perfect human and Savior and was addressed to the Gentiles and Theophilus ("one who loves God").  The book was written by Luke, a doctor a Greek, and Gentile Christian.  He is only known Gentile author in the New Testament.  Luke was a close friend and companion of Paul.  He also wrote Acts, and the two books (Luke and Acts) go together.  This is the most comprehensive of the Gospels.  The general vocabulary and diction show that tha author was educated,   He makes frequent references to illnesses and diagnoses.  Luke stresses Jesus' relationships with people; emphasizes prayer, miracles, and angels; records inspired hymns of praise; gives a prominent place to women.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV. 

60-62 AD
            The book of Ephesians was written during this time to strengthen the believers in Ephesus in their Christian faith by explaining the nature and purpose of the church, the body of Christ.  The book was written by Paul and was addressed to the church at Ephesus, then circulated to neighboring local churches.  The letter was not written to confront any heresy of problem in the churches it was sent with Tychicus to strengthen and encourage the churches in the area.  Paul had spent over three years with the Ephesian church.  As a result, he was very close to them,  Paul met with the elders of the Ephesian church at Miletus (Acts 20:17-38)--a meeting that was filled with great sadness because he was leaving them for what he thought would be the last time.  Because the letter contains no specific references to people or problems in the Ephesian church and because the words "at Ephesus" are not present in some early manuscripts.  Paul may have intended this to be a circular letter to ber read to all the churches in the area.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

60-62 AD
            The book of Philippians was written during this time to thank the Philippians for the gift they had sent Paul and to strengthen these believers by showing them that true joy comes from Jesus Christ alone. The book was addressed to the Christians at Philippi and was written by Paul.  Paul and his companions began the church at Philippi on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:11-40)a.  This was the first church established on the European continent.  The Philippian church has sent a gift with Epaphroditus (one of their members) to be delivered to Paul.  Paul was in a Roman prison at the time.  He wrote this letter to thank them for their gift and to encourage them in their faith.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.

60-62 AD
            The book of Philemon was written during this time with the purpose to convince Philemon to forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus, and to accept him as a brother in the faith.  The book was written by the Apostle Paul to Philemon , who was probably a wealthy member of the Colossian church.
Slavery was very common in the Roman empire, and evidently some Christians had slaves.  Paul does not condemn the institution of slavery in his writings, but he makes a radical statement by calling this slave Philemon's brother in Christ.

60-62 AD
            The book of Colossians was written during this time to combat errors in the church and to show that believers have everything they need in Christ,  The book was addressed to the church at Colosse, a city in Asia Minor, which is in the country of Turkey.  The book was written by the Apostle Paul.  Setting: Paul had never visited Colosse.  Evidently the church had been founded by Epaphras and other converts from Paul's missionary travels.  The church, however, had been infiltrated by religious relativism, with some believers attempting to combine elements of paganism and secular philosophy with Christian doctrine.  Paul confronts these false teachings and affirms the sufficiency of Christ.

61 AD
         The ship with the prisoner Paul sailed from Caesarea in autumn of the year 60.  A shipwreck, followed by severe storms, necessitated wintering on Malta.  It was not until the year 61 that Paul set foot on Italian soil.

62 AD
            The book of Acts was written during this time to give an accurate account of the birth and growth of the Christian church.  The book was written by Luke (a Gentile physician) and was addressed to Theophilus. The book of Acts is the connecting link between Christ's life and the life of the church, between the Gospels and the Letters.  The book of Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke.  Because Acts ends so abruptly, Luke may have planned to write a third book, continuing the story.

62-64 AD
            The book of 1 Timothy was written by the Apostle Paul during this time to give encouragement and instruction to Timothy, a young leader.  Timothy was one of Paul's closest companions.  Paul had sent Timothy to the church a Ephesus to counter the false teaching that had arisen there.  Timothy probably served for a time as a leader in the church at Ephesus, Paul hoped to visit Timothy, but in the meantime, he wrote this letter to give Timothy practical advice about the ministry.

62-64 AD
           The book of Titus was written during this time by Paul to advice Titus in the responsibility of supervising the churches on the Island of Crete.  Setting: Paul sent Titus to organize on oversee the churches on Crete.  This letter tells Titus how to do this job.

64 AD 
         The Burning of Rome took place.  Flames destroyed nearly three-fourths of the capital city.  Emperor Nero blamed and persecuted the Christians for the fire.

64-65 AD 
            The book of 1 Peter was written by Peter during this time to offer encouragement to suffering Christians.  Peter used several images that were very special to him because Jesus had used them when He had revealed certain truths to Peter.  Peter's name (which means "rock") had been given to him by Jesus.  Peter's conception of the church--a spiritual house composed to living stones built upon Christ as the foundation--had come from Christ.  Jesus had encouraged Peter to care for the church as a shepherd tending the flock.  Thus, it is not surprising to see Peter using living stones and shepherds and sheep to describe the church.  Setting:  Peter was probably in Rome when the great persecution under Emperor Nero began.  (Eventually Peter was executed during this persecution.)  Throughout the Roman empire, Christians were being tortured and killed for their faith, and the church in Jerusalem was being scattered.

66 AD (Circa) 
              The Apostle Paul was be-headed.  He is buried at Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.  There is also a painting of the beheading of the apostle Paul on display at the church  by Enrique Simonet, created in 1887.

66-67 AD
            The book of 2 Timothy was written during this time to give final instructions and encouragement to Timothy, pastor of the church at Ephesus. The book was written by Paul and was addressed to Timothy.  Setting: Paul was virtually alone in prison' only Luke was with him.  Paul wrote this letter to pass the torch to the new generation of church leaders.  He also asked for visits from his friends and for his books, especially the parchments--possibly parts of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and other Biblical manuscripts.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV. .

67 AD
            The Apostle Paul was martyred in Rome:  In Rome, Paul  was kept under house arrest for two years.  We do not know whether his case was ever heard before a court.  We are equally ignorant of the possibility of any further journeying by the Apostle.  The martyrdom of Paul is reported only by second-century sources.  As a Roman citizen, he may have been beheaded, perhaps in this year.

67-68 AD
            The book of 2 Peter was written during this time to warn Christians about false teachers and to exhort them to grow in their faith in and knowledge of Christ.  The book was written to the church at large by Peter.  Setting:  Peter knew that his time on earth was limited, so he wrote about what was on his heart, warning believers of what would happen when he was gone--especially about the presence of false teachers.  He reminded his readers of the unchanging truth of the gospel.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.  

67-69 AD
            The book of Hebrews was written during this time to present the sufficiency and superiority of Christ.  The author could be any of the following: Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Silas, Phillip, Pricilia and other have been suggested because the name of the author is not given in the Biblical text itself.  Whoever it was speaks of Timothy as "brother."(13:23)  The book was written to the Hebrew Christians perhaps because of immaturity, stemming from a lack of understanding of Biblical truths.  Setting: These Jewish Christians were probably undergoing fierce persecution, socially and physically, both from Jews and from Romans.  Christ has not returned to establish his kingdom, and the people needed to be reassured that Christianity was true and that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.  These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV.  

68 AD
            June 9, Roman Emperor Nero died at the age of 30

68-70 AD
            The book of Jude was written during this time to remind the church of the need for constant vigilance--to keep strong in the faith and to oppose heresy.  The book was written by Jude, brother of Jesus and James to the Jewish Christians.  Setting:  From the first century on, the church has been threatened by heresy and false teaching, we must always be on out guard.  Jude's letter focuses on apostasy--when people turn away from God's truth and embrace false teachings.  Jude reminded his readers of God's judgment on those who had left the faith.  This letter warns against false teachers--in this case, probable Gnostic teachers.  Gnostics opposed two of the basic tenets of Christianity--the incarnation of Christ and the call to Christian ethics.  Jude wrote of combat the false teachings and to encourage true doctrine and right conduct.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV. 

69 AD 
            Polycarp was born.  He was a Church Father and Bishop of Smyrna, which is now called Izmir, located on the west coast of Turkey.  He was martyred by being burnt at the stake.  The fire didn't touch him so the executioner ordered him pierced with a sword.  This took place in the year 155.  See Fox's book of Martyrs, page 9. 

70 AD 
            The Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Roman army.  6,000 Jews died on the Temple Mount as the Roman army crushed a revolt, torching the Temple and demolishing the complex..  Israel fell under Roman Rule.

70-72
            Construction of the Coliseum in Rome began under the rule of Emperor Vespasian.  It was completed in 80 AD under Titus.  It is an elliptical amphitheater in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire, built of concrete and stone.  It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. 

73
           The siege of Masada by Roman soldiers led to a mass " suicide" of the 960 Jewish people who lived there.  Seven people were taken captive.  In 1971, a cable car was built to haul equipment and visitors to the top of the mountain.  In 1998, the original cable car was replaced by one that had no supports in its length to hold up the cable.  At the lower terminal of the cable car is an awesome building that houses a display that shows the history, images, and artifacts of Masada. Up on top most of the structures have partially been restored so a visitor can get an idea of what life was like up there.  Looking over wall on the west side you can make out the outline of the Roman camps and see the siege ramp that was built to gain access to the fortified installation.  Looking over the north end you can see the top of Herod's palace.  A walking trail is available in case a person wants to walk down to it.  A trail is also available for walking down up and down the mountain in case you don't feel like riding the cable car.  It is called the "snake path." 

79
            August 24, (circa) Mount Vesuvius in Italy, erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii, first by the hot gasses then was buried under 16 to 20 foot of volcanic ash.   Other city's destroyed were Herculaneum along with Pompeii were the two most famous cities affected by the eruption but there were towns named Oplontis, Stabiae, which were also affected.

80-90 
            The book of John was written during this time to prove conclusively that Jesus is the Son of God and that all who believe in Him will have eternal life.  The book was written by John the apostle, son of Zebedee, brother of James, called a "Son of Thunder" and was addressed to the New Christians and searching non-Christians.  Setting: Written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and before John's exile to the island of Patmos.  John makes it clear that Jesus is not just a man; He is the eternal Son of God,  He is the light of the world because He offers His gift of eternal life to all people.  How blind and foolish to call Jesus nothing more that an unusually good man or moral teacher.  Yet we sometime act as if this were true when we casually toss around His words and go about living our own way.  If Jesus is the eternal Son on God, we should pay attention to His divine identity and life-giving message.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV

90-95
            The book of 1 John was written during this time to reassure Christians in their faith and to counter false teachings.  The letter us untitled and was  written to no particular chruch,  It was sent as a pastoral letter to several Gentile congregations and was written by the Apostle John.  Setting: John was and older man and perhaps the only surviving apostle at this time.  He had not yet been banished to the island of Patmos, where he would live in exile.  As an eyewitness of Christ, he wrote authoritatively to give this new generation of believers assurance and confidence in God and in their faith.  John is the apostle of love, and love is mentioned throughout this letter.  There are a number of similarities between this letter and John's Gospel--in vocabulary, style, and main ideas.  John uses brief statements and simple words, and he features sharp contrasts--light and darkness, truth and error, God and Satan, life and death, and love and hate.
            The book of 2 John was written during this time to emphasize the basics of following Christ--truth and love--and to warn against false teachers.  The letter was written to the "chosen lady" and her children--or possibly to a local church by the apostle John.  Setting: Evidently this woman and her family were involved in one of the churches that John was overseeing--they had developed a strong friendship with John,  John was warning her of the false teachers who were becoming prevalent in some of the churches.  False teachers were a dangerous problem for the church to which John was writing His warening against showing hospitality to false teachers may sound harsh and unloving to many today.  Yet these men were teaching heresy that could seriously harm many believers--for eternity.
            The book of 3 John was written during this time to commend Gaius for his hospitality and to encourage him in his Christian life.  The letter was written to Gaius, a prominent Christian in one of the churches know to John.  Setting: Church leaders traveled from town to town helping to establish new congregations.  They depended on the hospitality of fellow believers.  Gaius was one who welcomed these leaders into his home. These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV

94-96
            The book of Revelation was written during this time to reveal the full identity of Christ and to give warning and hope to believers.  The book was addressed to the seven churches in Asia and all believers everywhere.  It was written on the island of Patmos by the apostle John.  Setting: Most scholars believe that the seven churches of Asia (Pergamum, Thyateira, Smyrna (now a part of the Turkish city of Izmir), Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Ephesus) to whom John writes were experiencing the persecution that took place under the Emperor Domitian (90-95 AD).  It seems that the Roman authorities had exiled John to the island of Patmos (off the coast of Asia).  John, who had been an eyewitness of the incarnate Christ, had a vision of the glorified Christ.  God also revealed to John what would take place in the future--Judgment and the ultimate triumph of God over evil.   These notes were copied from the Life Application Study Bible NIV  Theme:  John writes to encourage the faithful to stand firm against persecution and compromise in the light of imminent return of Christ to deliver the righteous and judge the wicked.  Overview: Revelation is a book of hope; its central message is that God and good will win over evil, no matter how bad things look now.  Its author, the apostle John, encourages his readers to live a committed, holy life in order to participate in God's victorious kingdom.  The Bible says the book was written to seven churches in the Roman Province of Asia (present-day Turkey) to warn them against falling away from their faith in Christ.  It also offered assurance of ultimate victory to those who remain on God's side.  Revelation is apocalyptic literature.  The Greek word apocalypse means " uncovering," "unveiling," or "revelation."  Jewish apocalyptic writing uses figurative language and symbolism to show that evil will be replaced by the goodness and peace of God's kingdom.  As you read look for a combination of warnings and encouragements, challenge, and hope.  Watch for descriptions of the future, as God's kingdom ultimately conquers evil in the last days.   Also notice the picture of the ruling Christ, His divine attributes, and His heavenly glory.   The Theme and Overview are taken from Bible Gateway.com.

97 
        Timothy was the celebrated disciple of St. Paul, and bishop of Ephesus, where he zealously governed the Church until AD 97.  At this period, as the pagans were about to celebrate a feast called Catagogion, Timothy, meeting the procession, severely reproved them for their ridiculous idolatry, which so exasperated the people that they fell upon him with their clubs, and beat him in so dreadful a manner that he died of the bruises two days later.  From "Fox's Book of Martyrs," the second persecution, under Domitian, AD 81.

100   
        The Odes of Solomon were written about this time, in or near Syria.  They were found in 1909 and believed to be the first Christian hymnal.  They were lovely hymns of praise composed by an anonymous Christian Poet.  They were translated and set to music.  Forty one of the Forty Two Odes exist today.  Number Seventeen is called "I Have Been Freed," which combines ancient and modern words.  Translated and set to music, we hear the authors heart of worship and share in the truths that transcend time and place.  This hymn of praise was sung by an ensemble at Temple Baptist Church on September 13, 2009.  See the bulletin
            Justin Martyr was born in this year in what is known now as Nablus, Israel but which now is a part of Palestine. Justin was a convert from paganism, but became the most notable of the second century 'apologists' (writers defending the Christian faith). He was an early Christian apologist and philosopher.  Justin was martyred, along with some of his students in year 165 in Rome, Roman Empire.  It seems likely that his bold ministry was cut short in its full vigour.  He had presented his faith as both scriptural and reasonable in the face of objections by both Jews and pagans.

112 Circa
            Pliny wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan   Pliny was the governor of Pontus, an area in Northern Turkey asking the Emperor Trajan how to handle Christians.  Trajan ordered Pliny not to pursue Christians.  Only when people were accused of being Christians were they to be hunted down.       

117
            Construction began on the Library of Celsus which is located in the ancient city of Ephesus, Turkey.  Construction on the library was finished in the year 120.

150 
            Irenaeus was born during this year in Smyrna, Turkey.  He was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in what is now the south of France and more widely, for the development of Christian theology by combating heresy and defining orthodoxy.  Originating from Smyrna, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, the last known living connection with the Apostles, to in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist.

155
            Tertellian was born in Carthage, Tunisia.  He was the first major Christian author to write in Latin.  He was therefore the first to use many of the technical words common in later Christian theological debates.  He was a prolific, early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.  He was the first Christian author to produce a corpus (an extensive collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author of a body of writing on a particular subject) of Latin Christian literature.   He was an early Christian apologist and polemicist ( a person who engages in controversial debate) against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism. Tertullian died in 220 at the age of 64-65 in Carthage, Roman Empire.

162 Circa
            A girl named Blandina was born in Lugdunum, Roman Empire which is now Lyon, France.  She was a slave girl who along side the city's leading pastor were accused of being Christians.  She belongs to a band of martyrs of Lyon, France who, after some of their number had endured frightful tortures, suffered martyrdom in the year 177 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

170
            Hippolytus of Rome was born during this year.  He was a Roman Theologian.  He recorded the Apostolike Paradosis (Apostolic Tradition), which includes an early form of the Apostles' Creed.  He died in the year 236.

182c
            Felicity was a North African slave girl and a Christian.  They lived in Carthage, a city in North Africa.  She was martyred with Perpetua, a fellow Christian.  Felicity bore a child in prison,  Their captor scoffed, "You're in such pain now`  What will you do when you're thrown to the beasts?'"  She replied, "Now, I suffer alone, Then, there will be another in me.  He suffered for me for I am about to suffer for Him."  They died in 203c in Cathage.  They were arrested and executed at the military games in celebration of the Emperor Septimius Severus's birthday.

184
            Origen of Alexandria was born sometime during this year. He was third-century Christian scholar. One important outline of basic Christian beliefs in the late second and early third centuries was the Rule of Faith.  Origen described it as: the teaching of the church preserved unaltered and handed down in unbroken succession from the apostles.  In reality it indicated what particular writers or churches taught, especially against heretics, but also to new converts, as the central message of the Bible.  The Rule was known by several names: 'the faith', 'the tradition', 'the preaching' and the 'Rule of Truth'.  It claimed to represent an apostolic tradition of teaching, and was even appealed to in the dispute over the Christian Pascha. (Also called Easter.)  In his later life he was put in prison by the Roman Ruler Decius and tortured for his faith in God but Origen refused to renounce his faith in Christ. He ended up being in prison for two years.  After the death of Decius, Origen was released from prison and died shortly after in 253 AD  in Tyre, Lebanon of his wounds received from the torture he endured while in prison..

250
            In AD 250 the most violent persecution the church had yet faced was instigated by the Emperor Decius (249-251).  Imperial edicts commanded all citizens of the Empire to sacrifice to the traditional Roman gods.  Those who do so were given certificates (libelli, in Latin) as evidence that they had obeyed the order.  Those who refused to obey and we unable (or unwilling) to obtain false libelli from sympathetic or corrupt officials were executed.  

330
            Basil the Great was born in Kaysen, Turkey  He was an East Roman bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor now know as Turkey.  He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed the heresies of the early Christian church, fighting against both Arianism and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea.  He ability to balance his theological convictions with his political connections made Basil a powerful advocate to the Nicene position.  Basil died January 1, 379 AD in Kaysen, Turkey

263 - 339 circa
             Eusebius was the first to attempt a history of the church on a grand scale.  Born in Palestine, Caesarea Maritima,he was on the run during the Great Persecution.He saw many martyrdoms in Egypt and was himself imprisoned for his faith in 313-314.

296 Circa
             Athanasois was born in the Roman territory of Alexandria, Egypt.  He later became a deacon in the church of Alexandria.  In the year 325 he accompanied his bishop Alexander to the Council of Nicaea.  At the Council of Nicaea Athanasois defended the Councils definition of Christ as of the same substance with God, and Nicaea's rejection of Arianism.  He succeeded Alexander as bishop in 328.  He died on May 2, 373 in Alexandria, Egypt.

339
            Ambrose of Milan was born in Trier, Germany.  After the death of the Arian bishop of Milan, Ambrose was elected bishop by popular acclaim even though at that time he was not even baptized.  He became famous both as a preacher and as a church administrator and politician.  He was baptized by Augustine in 387.  He was the first to introduce community hymn-singing in the church,  He died April 4, 397 in Milan, Italy at the age of 58.

342-347 circa
             Jerome was born during this time in the area of modern Croatia.  He was a Latin priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and is best known as Saint Jerome.  He is known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (known as the Vulgate).  Jerome's quote about the Latin Bible; "I am not so stupid as to think that any of the Lord's words either need correcting or are not divinely inspired: but the Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures are proved faulty by the variations which are found in all of them.  My aim has been to restore them to the form of the Greek original, from which my critics do not deny that the have been translated."  Jerome spent the last thirty-three years of his life in Bethlehem.  (There is a chapel next to the Church of the Nativity in the city of Bethlehem called the Church of St. Catherine that has a statue of Jerome in the courtyard in front of the chapel.)  The complex of caves in which he did his studies and writings are under the chapel.  He died on September 30, 420 at the age of 73-78.

347
            John Chrysostom was born this year in Antioch, located in Southeastern Turkey.  He became known as the greatest of Christian preachers. he was brought up by his devoted mother Anthusa, who at twenty was left a widow with an infant son.  John's father, Secundus was a high ranking military officer who died shortly after his birth. John's teacher, the pagan orator Libanius, paid Anthusa the tribute< "God, what women these Christians have!"  John was baptized at the age of eighteen and became a reader or lector in the church.  His devotion to ascetic practices, including two years living alone in a mountain cave, ruined his health.  Returning to the city, he was ordained a deacon in 381 and presbyter in 386.  From the latter date he was appointed to preach in the principal church in Antioch, where he built up his reputation as a preacher.  In 397, John was chosen bishop of Constantinople against his will and consecrated to that position in 398.  He was unsuited for the intrigues and pressures of Constantinople.  His efforts to raise the moral climate of the capital met strong opposition.  His enemies joined forces: the Empress Eudoxia, stung by his attacks on sin in high places; local clergy who found John too strict; and Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, jealous of a churchman from Antioch at the capital.  They had John deposed at the "synod of the Oak' in 403. The Emperor accepted the decision and exiled him.  The people of Constantinople rioted in support of their bishop; the Emperor was frightened by the response and recalled John the next day.  He ended up being exiled again in 404 and ended up dying on September 14, 407 at.Comana Pontica.

354
         November 13, St. Augustine of Hippo was born this day in Algeria.  Latin Patristic (Study of early church fathers) theologian and scriptural "exegete" = critical interpretation of Scripture.   He believedthe grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom.   He was educated in North Africa and was the bishop of Hippo from about 390 until his death.  The theology he shaped dominated the West until the thirteenth century and greatly influenced the Reformation.  His predestination views formed the foundation for various mission theologians during those periods.  He died on August 28, 430 at the age of 75, was the bishop of Hippo for about 40 years.

376
            Cyril of Alexandria was born during this year.  Although he was an important figure who became a brilliant representative of the Alexandrian theology, the early life of Cyril is obscure.   He was accepted into the ranks of the clergy by his nephew Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, and in 403 he accompanied Theophilus to Constantinople.  Despite opposition he was elected in 412 to succeed Theophilus as patriarch of Alexandria.  His main concern was to combat Nestorianism.  Acting on behalf of Celestine of Rome, Cyril convened the council of Alexandria in 430, which demanded that Nestorius recant.  Cyril's twelve anathemas against Nestorius wer countered with twelve from Nestorius.  Cyril headed the Council of Ephesus in 431, which deposed Nestorius.  Cyril died in 444.

385
            St. Patrick was born during this year in Roman Britain now known as Great Britain.  He was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.  The details of Patrick's life are disputed and over laid with many pious legends.  Legends say the St. Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland but the absence of snakes has been noted from as early as the thrird century.  The small amount of definite information about his is found in his two writings: The Confession and A Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, a chief in north Britain.  He died on March 17, 461 in what is now Northern Ireland.

386
           Nestorius the Archbishop of Constantinople was born in this year in Kahramanmaras, Turkey  He served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April, 428 to August 431.  He was a Christian theologian, several of his teachings in the fields of Christology and Mariology were seen as controversial and caused major disputes. He died in 451 in Karga, Egyptor Upper Egypt.</p>

413
            The Chora Church or as originally called the "Church of the Holy Saviour Outside the Walls."  It was called by this name since it was built outside the city now known as Istanbul in the 4th century as part of a monastery complex by Constantine the Great.  It later was enclosed with in the walls of Constantinople, by Emperor Theodosius II in this year.  It was a mosque for many years but today it is a museum (Kariye Musesi) and most of the frescos and mosaics are fully and beautifully restored.  The church has been turned back into a Mosque in August, 2020 by President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

431
            The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops who convened in Ephesus, Turkey by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II.  This was the third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church though a assembly representing all of Christendom.  This council took place in June and July at the Church of Mary in Ephesus in Anatolia.

451
            The Council of Chalcedon.  The Council marked the end of Arianism within the Empire.  Unlike the other three early ecumenical councils, it was not followed by decades of doctrinal strife.  Theodosius had proved the man for the moment.  But in matters of church order, peace was more elusive.

477
            Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius or commonly know as Boethius was born in Rome.  He is ranked among the founders of the Middle Ages because of his great influence on medieval education and thought.  He was a statesman and philosopher. He served the roman king of Ostrogoths (a Roman-era Germanic people) in Italy, Theodoric the Great.  Near the end of his life he was accused of treason against Theodoric, put in prison and eventually executed in 524.  He died at the age of 44.  While in prison he wrote his Consolation of Philosophy.

521
            Columba was born on December 7, of this year in Gartan (a parish in County Donegal, Ireland.).  He was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hibemo-Scottish mission.  He founded the abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries.  He is the patron saint of Derry, Northern Ireland.  Columba died on June 8, 597 in Iona, United Kingdom.

532
            Construction started on the Hagia Sophia in what is now known as Istanbul, Turkey.  From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as a cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was the cathedral of the Latin Empire.  The building was converted to a mosque from May 29, 1453 until 1934, when it was secularized.  It was opened as a museum on February 1, 1935.  It has since turned back into a mosque.

542
         November 20, The Madaba Map was dedicated on this date in the church of St. George in Madaba, Jordan.  

565            
            This year The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Israel/Palestine as it stands today was constructed.  The first basilica on the site was begun by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine I.  Under the supervision of Bishop Makorios of Jerusalem, construction started in 327  and was completed in 333.  That structure was burnt down in the Samaritan Revolt of 529.  The current basilica was rebuilt in its present form in this year by the Emperor Justinian I.  The Grotto of the Nativity, an underground cave located beneath the basilica, enshrines the site where Jesus is said to have been born.  The exact spot is marked beneath an altar by a 14-pointed silver star set into the marble floor and surrounded by silver lamps. 

570
            The Prophet Muhammad was born in the Arabian city of Mecca sometime during this year.  He died on Monday, June 8, 632, in the city of Medina, which is in the country now known now as Saudi Arabia at the age of 63.  

610
            Islam holds that the Qur'an was revealed from Allah to Muhammad orally through the angel Jubril (Gabriel) over a period of approximately twenty-three years, beginning in this year, when Muhammad was forty and concluding in 632 AD, the year of his death.  The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam, also sometimes transliterated as Quran, Koran, Our'ān, Coran or al-Qur'ān.  Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the verbal book of divine guidance and direction for mankind.  Muslims also consider the original Arabic verbal text to be the final revelation of God.

970 circa
            Leif Erikson was born most likely in Iceland sometime during the year.  He was the son of Icelandic mother and Norse father. Erik the Red, an explorer and outlaw from Western Norway. He was an Icelandic explorer and regarded as the first European to land in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. He died most likely in Greenland about the year 1020.

673
            Bede was born during this year.  Saint Bede was the most talented historian of the early Middle Ages, spent almost his entire life in the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in the north of England where, by the eighth century, a vigorous Anglo-Saxon culture was flowering.  He died in 735.    

691
            The construction of the Dome of the Rock was completed on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem.  When it was built, it was intended that the building serve as a shrine for pilgrims and not as a mosque for public worship, which is what it is used for today.  Non - Muslims are not permitted in the building today.

1096
            Oxford University was founded. The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation 

1140 circa
            Peter Waldo was born during this time.  He is regarded as the founder of the Waldensians sometime between 1170 and 1177.  Waldo died sometime near 1205.  He was aged 64-65.

1142
            The Crusaders built the Church of St. Anne in what is now the Muslim Quarter in the city of Jerusalem, Israel.  It supposedly marks the place where the Virgin Mary's parents lived.  The Catholic cloister that surrounds the Church of St. Anne and the Pool of Bethesda offers many refreshing delights to the weary traveler.  The cool shade of the pepper trees provides shelter from the scorching sun.  Birds send their love songs airmail across the flowered courtyard.  The joyful strains of happy pilgrims testing St. Anne's acoustics float outward and upward over the stone pavement and ancient pools.  Sit inside the church and listen and take-in the sounds of groups lifting their voices in praise to our Lord through song.

1150 circa
            Stephen Langton was born in and about this year.  Langton is believed to be the one who divided the Bible into the standard modern arrangement of chapters and it is Langton's arrangement of the chapters that remains in use today.  Stephen was a Roman Catholic and was chosen and consecrated by the Pope at Viterbo on June 17, 1207 to be the Archbishopric of Canterbury.  He died on July 9, 1228 in Slindon, Sussex, England.  He is buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

1328
            John Wycliffe was born sometime during this year.  He was an English theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformist and university teacher who was known as an earlier dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century.  Wycliffe was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common tongue.  He completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into Vernacular English in the year 1382, now known as Wycliff's Bible.  It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament.  Wycliff's Bible appears to have been completed by1834, with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey and other in 1388 and 1395.   He died on December 31, 1384.

1369
            Jan Hus was born in this year.  No specific day is mentioned.    He was considered the first Church reformer, as he lived before Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli.  He was a Czech Theologian, Roman Catholic Priest, philosopher, master, dean and rector of Charles University in Prague.  After being executed, the followers of his religious teaching (known as Hussites) rebelled against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as "The Hussite Wars."   He died on July 6, 1415 after being "burnt at the stake." 

1368-1644
            The Great Wall of China as we see it today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty.  The Great Wall was originally built in the Spring and Autumn, and Waring States Periods as a defensive fortification by the three states: Yan, Zhao, and Qin.  It went through constant extensions and repairs in later dynasties.  It began as independent walls for different states when it was first built, and did not become the "Great" wall until the Qin Dynasty. 
             The Great Wall, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987.  Just like a  gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountain, and plateaus, stretching approximately 13,170 miles (21,196 kilometers) from east to west of China.  See 220BC                                 

1403
            Jan Hus  begins preaching Wycliffite ideas in Bohemia.
            The world's first quarantine station is built in Venice, Italy to quarantine against the Black Death.

1406
            Construction of the Forbidden City begins in Beijing during the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

1408
            The Island of Gotland passes under Danish rule.  Gotland is in located in the Baltic Sea 55.9 miles east of Sweden and Southeast of Stockholm.  It is a beautiful medieval place especially the walled capitol city of Visby. 

1410
            Jan Hus is excommunicated by the Archbishop of Prague. 

1412
            January 6, Joan of Arc, French soldier and saint was born.  She died on May 30, 1431.

1414
            November 16, The Council of Constance begins.

1415
            June 5, The Council of Constance condemns the writings of John Wycliff and asks Jan Hus to recant in public his heresy; after his denial, he is tried for heresy, excommunicated , then sentenced to be burned at the stake.
            July 6, Jan Hus is burned at the stake in Konstanz.  Some say he was the forerunner of Martin Luther.

1416
         May 30, The Catholic Church burns Jerome of Prague as a heretic.

1417
            The use of street lighting is first recorded in London, when Sir Henry Barton, the mayor, orders lanterns with lights to be hung out on the winter evenings between Hallowtide and Candlemas.

1418
            The Council of Constance ends.

1431
            May 30, Nineteen-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake at Rouen, France.

1483
            November 10, Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany.  He was a German monk, priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation.  He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money.  Luther taught that salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin.  His theology challenged the authority of Pope of the Roman Catholic Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge.  He died on February 18, 1546 at the age of 62.

1492
              October 12, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World; he sailed from Spain and landed in the Bahamas on San Salvador or Wattling's Island.  Read excerpts from his journal.
            William Tyndale was born sometime during this year.  He was a 16th-century Protestant reformer and scholar who, influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther, translated considerable parts of the Bible into the Early Modern English of his day.  Tyndale was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned.  His final words, spoken "at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice," were reported as "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes." He died on October 6, 1536.

1497
            February 16,  Philipp Melanchthon was born.  He was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems.  He stands next to Luther and Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and molder of Protestantism.   He died on April 19, 1560.
            June 24, John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings visits of Vinland in the eleventh century.  The official position of the Canadian and United Kingdom government is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland. 

1498
            Felix Mantz was born sometime during this year.  He was a co-founder of the original Swiss Brethren Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, Switzerland, and the first martyr of the Radical Reformation.  He died on January 5, 1527, being executed by drowning in Lake Zurich on the Limmat.  He was sentenced to death for teaching baptism by emersion.

1508
            Michelangelo started painting the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.

1509
            July 10, John Calvin was born.  He was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation.  He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism.  He died on May 27, 1564.          

1513
            Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. 
            Vascode Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean.

1514
            John Knox was born in this year in Haddington, United Kingdom..  He was a Scottish clergyman, writer and leader of the Protestant Reformation who is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination in Scotland.  He died on November 24, 1572 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

1517
            John Foxe was born in Boston in Lincolnshire, England.  He died in England on April 18, 1587.   See 1563 He was a Protestant writer, whose popular book Foxes Book of Martyrs recounted the heroism and sufferings of many early Protestants.


1524
            Giovanni da Verrazano explored America's northeast coast.  

1529
            February 4, Ludwig Heltzer, was beheaded at Kanstanz for holding Baptist views. (From the notes of H. Hallgren)

1530
            Grace O'Malley was Ireland's pirate queen.  Grace was born about this year in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland  She was the daughter of a chieftain, Owen O'Malley, and his wife Margaret.  She grew up inheriting her father's taste for the seafaring life and eventually took command of his fleet of galleys and their hard-bitten, all-male crews.  For fifty years she traded the clan's produce in Ireland, Scotland, and Spain, skillfully practiced the time-honored craft of piracy and plundering, and led rebellions against the invading English.

1558
            For more than 270 years --- from 1558 to 1829 --- Roman Catholics in England were not able to practice their faith openly so they had to find alternative ways to express their beliefs - underground.  The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is one example of how they did it.

1560
            October 10, Jacobus Arminius was born in Oudewater, Netherlands.  Jacobus Arminius was the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Hermanszoon from the Protestant Reformation period.  He died on October 19, 1609, in Leiden, Netherlands

1563
            March 20, John Foxe' book, "Fox's Book of Martyrs" was published in English by John Day.  The book is a celebrated work of church history and martyr logy.  It contained about 1800 pages and was first known as Acts and Monuments.  John Fox (or Foxe) was born in Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1517. 

1565
            September 8, The first permanent European settlement in the present U.S. was founded at St. Augustine, Florida.

1572
            January 22, John Donne was born in London, England.  He was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant (a person who refuses to submit to authority) family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England.  Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London .(1621–1631).He died on March 31, 1631 in London England.

1585
            The first English colony in America was settled on Roanoke Island, but it survived only ten months. Roanoke is an island off the coast of North Carolina.  It is part of Dare County
           1590
            Between 1585 to 1590 English settlers make two unsuccessful attempts to establish a colony on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. The second group of settlers, later known as the Lost Colony, disappear during a long period without contact with England. Their fate is unknown.

1587
            April 18,  John Foxe died on this date in London, England.  He was born at Boston in Lincolnshire county, England in 1516.  The work for which he was famous , Book of Martyrs, was first published in English in 1563 under the title, Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perillour Dayes, but it be came known almost immediately as the Book of Martyrs.
            August 18, The first English child, Virginia Dare was born on the continent at the second Roanoke settlement--the "Lost Colony."

1595
            Pocahontas was born sometime this year.  She was noted for her association with the colonial settlement.  She was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.  She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in the Tidewater region of Virginia.  In a well-known historical anecdote, she is said to have saved the life of an Indian captive, Englishman John Smith, in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him.  Pocahontas was captured by the English during Anglo-Indian hostilities in 1613, and held for ransom.  During her captivity, she converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca.  When the opportunity arose for her to return to her people, she chose to remain in with the English.  In April 1614, she married tobacco planter John Rolfe.  In January 1615, she bore him a son, Thomas Rolfe.  They traveled to England where on March 21, 1617 she died.  Lady Rebecca Rolfe was buried under the chancel of St. Georges Church in Gravesend on March 21, 1617.

1603
            December 21, Roger Williams was born in Cowley, Middlesex, England.  On February 5, 1631, Roger and Mary Williams arrived at Boston. He was an English theologian and leading American colonist, an early and courageous proponent of the separation of church and state, an advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans, founder of the city of Providence, Rhode Island, and co-founder of the colony of Rhode Island.  He was also one of the founders of Baptist church in America. He died on April 19, 1683, at the age of 79 in Providence.
 
1604
            January,   King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version of the Bible was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England. 

1607
            May 13, Jamestown, Virginia became the first permanent English settlement.

1608
            John Milton was born on December 9, on Bread Street, London, United Kingdom.. He was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell.   He wrote at a time of religious and political instability, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.  He died on November 8, 1604

1609
            Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon up the Hudson River looking for "The Northwest Passage."
            Construction started on the Blue Mosque in what is now known as Istanbul, Turkey.  The mosque is named Blue for the twenty thousand blue Iznik tiles adorning the walls of its interior.  Construction was completed in 1616.

1611
            April 11, Edward Wightman,  English Baptist was burned at the stake in Litchfield, England.
            The Authorized King James Version of the Bible was completed.  

1618
            The Thirty Years War started in Germany.  It lasted until 1648.  It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history.  

1619
            July 30, America's first legislative body, the Virginia House of Burgesses, convened in Jamestown, Virginia.
            The first black slaves in America, arrived on a Dutch ship in Jamestown.

1620
            September 6/16,  The Mayflower set sail from Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrims on board..
            November 10/20,  Land was sighted from the Mayflower.  It was confirmed to be Cape Cod.
            November 11/21,  The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown harbor.
            December 26, The Pilgrims who were on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.  During the first winter, 47% of them died.
            This year marks the start of the "Great Migration".  The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English settlers, primarily Puritans to Massachusetts and the warm islands of the West Indies, especially the sugar rich island of Barbados, 1630-40.  They came in family groups, rather than as isolated individuals and were motivated chiefly by a quest for freedom to practice their Puritan religion.   

1621
            June 21, twenty-seven protestant leaders were executed in the Old Town Square in Prague by order of the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand.
            October,  The first recorded Thanksgiving celebration.

1623
            July, The Pilgrims met together to celebrate the first proclamation of Thanksgiving. 

1624
            The Dutch created the first European settlements when they settled in the States of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and formed the Dutch colony of New Netherland, or Nieuw Nederlandt.  See Website  for detailed facts on those early days.

1626
            The Indians (Native American Lenape people) sell "Manhattes" Island to the Dutch for merchandise worth about $24.

1628
            November 18, St. Peters Basilica was completed in Rome
            November 28,  John Bunyan was born in Easton, near Bedford, England.  He was an English Christian writer and preacher who is famous for the writing "The Pilgrim's Progress."  Though he was a Reformed Baptist, he is remembered in the Church of England.  He died on August 31, 1688.

1629
           March,  The Massachusetts Bay Colony received its charter from King Charles of England superseding the land grant and establishing a legal basis for the English Colony at Massachusetts.

1632
            A King James Version of the Bible published in England became known as the "Wicked Bible."  The Wicked Bible, sometimes called the Adulterous Bible or The Sinner's Bible is a term referring to the Bible published in 1631 by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London, which was meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible.  The name is derived from the compositors' mistake: in the Ten Commandments of the word not in the sentence Thou shalt not commit adultery was omitted. 

1634
            Tulip bulbs were used as a form of currency in Holland. (snapple.com)
            The first decennial performance of the Oberammergau Passion Plays is held.

1635
            Phillip Spener was born in Alsace, France.  He was educated in Strasburg.  He completed his doctoral dissertation and was prepared to teach, but instead served as a pastor in Frankfurt.  He had completed his doctoral dissertation and was prepared to teach, but instead served as a pastor in Frankfurt.  the deadness and moral laxity of the congregation moved him to offer a specific program for change, spelled out in Pia Desideria, or "Pior Desires," first published in 1675,  This controversial writing marks the birth of Pietism as a renewal movement within Lutheranism and beyond it.  Phillip Spener died in 1705.

1636
            Roger Williams was an American Protestant theologian, and the first American proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.  He founded Providence, Rhode Island,  to provide religious freedom to all.  He was born around 1603 and died sometime between January 28 and March 15, 1863.
            October 28, Harvard College, the colonies' first institution of higher education was founded on this date by the state of Massachusetts.

1639
            January 14, The constitution of the state of Connecticut was the first constitution written in America.  The committee framing the orders was charged to make the law as as near to the law of God as they can be.
            1st Baptist Church in America at Providence, Rhode Island was organized.  The meetinghouse of the nation's oldest Baptist congregation, founded by Roger Williams in 1638. The structure was dedicated in 1775 and designed by Joseph Brown. The church has a carved wood interior and a Waterford crystal chandelier. Built by ships' carpenters in 1775, it survived the gale of 1875 and the hurricane of 1938.  The church congregation met in a grove of trees or in people's homes until 1775 when the church was dedicated. 

1640
            The Whole Book of Psalmes, was the first book printed in the colonies.  It was a hymnal known as the Bay Psalm Book.  Only the words were printed because they assumed everybody new the music.

1644
            October 14,  William Penn was born in London, England.  He was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians.  Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed.  He died on July 30, 1718 at the age of 74.
            November 13, law adopted by Massachusetts Bay banishing all Baptists.
            The second Baptist Church in America at Newport, RI organized by John Clark.

1653
             John Bunyan was baptized at 25 years of age.

1654
            Read some condensed history of the Anabaptist.  This was the first year, as known, the word Baptist was used in English Literature.f

1660
            December 1, The British Parliament passed the first Navigation Act of regulate colonial trade.  This particular Navigation Act added a twist to Oliver Cromwell's act; ship's crews had to be three-quarters English, and "enumerated" products not produced bh the mother country, such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar were to be shipped from the colonies onlyy to England or other English colonies.

1662
            December 17, Samuel Wesley was born.  He was a clergyman of the Church of England, as well as a poet and writer of controversial prose.  He was also the father of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism.  He died on April 5, 1735.

1664
            September, New Amsterdam was captured by English and the name was changed to New York.  The English also captured the Dutch colonies of New Netherland.  Fort Orange was renamed Fort Albany and paved the way for the naming of the city of Albany.

1665
            June 7, The First Baptist Church of Boston was organized by two women and seven men based on their strong commitment as disciples of Jesus Christ and their determination to worship God with freedom of conscience.  the organized this church, the third church of any kind to be founded in Boston and the fifth Baptist church in all America.  The first pastor, Thomas Gould, and three others were baptized on that day, the other having been baptized in England.
    The church was formed in defiance of two laws, passed by the General Court:  (1) That all persons wishing to form churches must first obtain consent of the :magistrates and elders of the greater part of the churches within this jurisdiction,"  (2) That "if any person or persons within this jurisdiction shall condemn or opposed the baptizing of infants... such person or persons shall be subject to banishment." 

1669
            January 20, Susanna Wesley was born in London, United Kingdom.  She was the mother of Samuel, John and Charles Wesley.  She died on July 23, 1742 London, England.

1673
             In this year Thomas Ken wrote a book entitled, "A Manual of Prayers,"  for the use of the scholars of Winchester College.  In one of the editions of this manual, Ken included three of his hymns that he wanted the students to sing each day as part of their devotion.  These hymns we called "Morning Hymn," Evening Hymn," and "Midnight Hymn."  Each of these hymns closed with the familiar four lines we now know as The Doxology.

1674
            July 17, Isaac Watts was born on this day.  He is recognized as the "Father of English Hymnody," as he was the first prolific and popular English hymn-writer, credited with some 750 hymns.    Many of his hymns remain in active use today and have been translated into many languages.  Three of the ones he wrote the words for are, "Joy to the World," "Jesus Shall Reign," and "Oh God, Our Help In Ages Past."  He died on November 25, 1748.

1676
            September 19, Nathaniel Bacon led rebellious Virginians against the Colony's royal government.  Bacon's death on October 26, from dysentery, led to the collapse of the rebellion.

1677
            William Penn framed the first charter separating church and state for the Quaker Colony of West Jersey.

1681
            February 28, King Charles II of England, granted to William Penn a proprietary charter for a colony and named it Pennsylvania to honor Penn's father.  Charles II granted a land charter to William Penn to repay a debt of €16,000 or around € 2,100,000 in 2008, adjusting for retail inflation) owed to William's father Admiral Penn.  This was one of the largest land grants to an individual in history.  It was called Pennsylvania, meaning "Penn's Woods", in honor of Admiral Penn.  William Penn, who had wanted his province to be named "Sylvania", was embarrassed at the change, fearing that people world think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant.  Penn established a government with two innovations that were much copied in the New World: the county commission and freedom of religious conviction.  

1684
            June 21, King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter.  1689

1685
            February 23, George Frideric Handel was born on this day.  He was a German-English Baroque composer who is famous for his operas, oratorios, and concertos.  Handel was born in Germany in the same year as JS Bach and Domenico Scarlatti.  His works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks.  George Handel died on April 14, 1759.
            March 31, Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in the Thuringian region of the Holy Roman Empire.  He was a famous German composer, and considered the "master of masters' because of his inspiring musical compositions.  All of his uncles were professional musicians,  His father probable taught his to play the violin and harpsicord, and his brother, Johann Christiph Bach, taught his the clavichord and exposed him to much contemporary musicBach composed a cantata which expressed the fervency of his faith in Christ's atoning work on the cross entitled"  Jesus, Meine Freude.  (Jesus, My Joy!"   Bach's health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany.

1688
            August 31, John Bunyan died in London. He was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress.  He was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England.

1689
            April 18, Sir Edmund Andros, governor of the Dominion of New England, was deposed during England's "Glorious Revolution"; the Massachusetts Bay Colony regained its charter two years later.  1684

1690
            September 25, first newspaper printed in America, was sold in Boston.  It was a 71/4" X 111/2", four page journal with one blank page where you could write in your own news.  It was printed by Benjamin Harris.  The paper lasted only one issue before being suppressed.

1692
            February, The Salem witch hunts began.  Before they ended in May of 1693, 14 women and 6 men were executed; 150 were imprisoned.

1703
           June 28,  John Wesley older brother of Charles Wesley was born.  He was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian.  John is largely credited, along with his brother Charles, as founding the Methodist movement, which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield.  In contrast to George Whitefield's Calvinism, Wesley embraced the Arminian doctrines that were dominant in the 18th-century Church of England.  Methodism in both forms was a highly successful evangelical movement in the United Kingdom, which encouraged people to experience Jesus Christ personally.  He encouraged people to meet and worship in small groups rather than worship in the authorized church building.  He died March 2, 1791 at the age of 87, in London, England..
            October 5  Jonathan Edwards was born in East Windsor, Connecticut Colony.  He was a Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian.  Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian." and one of America's greatest intellectuals.

1704
            August 1-3,  An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession.

1707
            December 18, Charles Wesley was born on this day.  Mr. Wesley is chiefly remembered for the many hymns he wrote.  He founded Wesley Chapel in the village of Brayton, North Yorkshire, England.  His house, located near by, can still be visited today.  Some of the hymns he wrote words for are, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," and "Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing."  He died on March 29, 1788.
            "When I Survey the Wondrus Cross," was written by Issac Watts.  Mr. Watts wrote 696 English hymns during his lifetime.

1712
            June, The Carolina Colony was divided into the providences of North Carolina and South Carolina.

1714
            December 16,  George Whitefield was born.  He was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies.  He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally.  He became perhaps the best-known preacher in Britain and America in the 18th century, and because he traveled through all of the American colonies and drew great crowds and media coverage, he was one of the most widely recognized public figures in colonial America.  He died Whitefield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1770, and was buried, according to his wishes, in a crypt under the pulpit of this church.

1715
            Sybilla Righton Masters was an American inventor.  Mrs. Masters was the first person residing in the American colonies to be given an English patent, and possibly the first known inverter of her gender in America.  Mrs. Masters was given a patent for a corn mill in her husbands name, as women were not allowed to have their own patents in that time and place.  She also patented a process for making hats.

1718
            David B. Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania.  He was born in Connecticut, he died of tuberculosis an the age of twenty-nine in 1747.
            Ice cream recipes first appear in 18th-century England and America.  A recipe for ice cream was published in Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts in London in this year.
            
1719
            Issac Watts wrote "Jesus Shall Reign".  Issac was born on July 17, 1674 and died on November 25, 1748 and is recognized as the Father of "English Hymnody", as he was the first prolific and popular English Hymn writer, credited with some 750 Hymns.  Many of his hymns remain in active use today and have been translated into many languages.
            Watts also wrote "Joy to the World" in this year.  He had written his first hymn in 1692 at the age of 18 as a protest against what he thought was the low quality of songs in Anglican hymnals.
           Though the triumphant words "Joy to the World" exemplify the Christmas feeling, this familiar text is actually a translation based on five verses from Psalm 98 in the Old Testament.

1723  
            The Old North Church in Boston was built.  A signal by Paul Revere from the lanterns hung in the belfry. "One if by land, two if by sea."

1725
            July 24, John Newton was born on this day in Wapping, London.  John was an English Anglican clergyman and former slave-ship captain.  He sailed back to England in 1748, aboard the merchant ship Greyhound, which was carrying beeswax and dyer's wood, now referred to as camwood.  During this voyage, he experienced a spiritual conversion.  The ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland and almost sank.  John  awoke in the middle of the night and finally called out to God as the ship filled with water.  After he called out, the cargo came out and stopped up the hole, and the ship was able to drift to safety.  It was this experience which he later marked as the beginnings of his conversion to evangelical Christianity.  As the ship sailed home, Newton began to read the Bible and other religious literature.  By the time he reached Britain, he had accepted the Lord as his personal savior. After he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of slavery. He was the author of at least 289 hymns, including "Amazing Grace."   He died on December 21, 1807 at the age of 82 in London, England.
            September 8, Arthur Guinness was born in  Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.  He was an Irish brewer and founder of the Guiness brewery business and family.  In 1761 he married Olivia Whitmore in St. Mary's Church, Dublin and they had 21 children, 10 of whom lived to adulthood.  He died on January 23, 1803 at the age of 78 in Dublin, Ireland.

1731
            November 26, William Cowper was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England on this day.  His last name is pronounced Cooper.   He wrote among other hymns, "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood."  He died on April 25, 1800.

1732
            February 22, George Washington was born.  He became the first President of the United States.  He died on December 1, 1799.
            June 9, General James Edward Oglethorpe received a charter for the colony of Georgia.  As a social reformer in Britain, he hoped to resettle Britain's poor, especially those in debtors' prison, in the New World.

1734
            Robert Aitken was born during this year.  He was a Philadelphia printer and the first to publish an English language Bible in the newly formed United States.  He was born in Dalkeith, Scotland.  He died in Philadelphia in 1802.

1735
            October 30,  John Adams the 2nd president of the United States was born in Braintree, Massachusetts.  He died on July 4, 1826 at the age of 90 in Quincy, Massachusetts.
            A New York City newspaper, New York Weekly Journal publisher John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel, a landmark decision for freedom of the press.  On Sunday, November 17, 1734 Zenger was arrested and charged with seditious libel.  After more than eight months in prison, Zenger went to trial defended by illustrious Philadelphia lawyer Andrew Hamilton.

1736
            May 29, Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Colony of Virginia, British America.  He was an American attorney, planter, and politician who became know as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770's.  A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.  He died in Brookneal, Virginia U.S. at the age of 63.    

1738
            December 26, Thomas Nelson Jr. was born on this day.    He was an American planter, soldier, and statesman from Yorktown, Virginia.  He represented Virginia in the Continental Congress and was its Governor in 1781.  He is regarded as one of the U.S. Founding Fathers since he signed the Declaration of Independence as a member of the Virginia delegation.  He died on January 4, 1789.

1739
            Charles Wesley wrote and published the Christmas Hymn, "Hark, the Herald Angles Sing".  In 1753 George Whitfield changed some of the words to read, as we know the hymn today.

1740
            April 7, Haym Salomon was born in Leszmo, Poland.  He was a Polish-born American Jewish businessman and political financial broker who immigrated to New York from Poland during the period of the American Revolution.  He helped convert the French loans into ready cash by selling bills of exchange for Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance.  In this way he aided the Continental Army and was possibly the prime financier of the American side during the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain.  He died on January 6, in Philadelphia, U.S.  

1741
             July 15, Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov Expedition discovers the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.  They were the first explorers from Asia to land on North America.

1742  
            April 13, Handel's Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland.  Messiah is an English oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel, and is on of the most popular works in the Western choral literature.  The Messiah sing-along now common at Christmas often consist of only the first of the oratorio's three parts, with the Hallelujah Chorus (originally concluding the second part) replacing His Yoke is Easy in the first part.

1744
            November 22, Abigail Adams was born in Weymouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America.  She was the wife of John Adams and the mother of John Quincy Adams and was the second first lady of the United States, although these titles were not used at the time..  She died October 28, 1818 at the age of 73 in Quincy, Massachusetts, US.  She is buried in the United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts.  On June 18, 1775, in the midst of the conflict with Britain, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John:
               "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people.  Trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us."                           The quote for Abigail Adams was copied form the book, America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, pg 2.

1745
            August 20, Francis Asbury was born in Handsworth, West Midlands, United Kingdom.  He was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.  He died on March 31, 1816.

1749
            May 19, King George II granted a charter to the Ohio Company.  The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the colonization of the Ohio Country.  The activities of the company helped to provoke the outbreak of the French and Indian War.  

1750
            It was about this year that John Newton wrote "Amazing Grace."  Click here to read the history of  one of life's greatest hymns.
           The rapidly growing population of Britain's North American colonies now numbers one million, while approximately six million people live in England and Wales.

1752
             January 1, Betsy Ross of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born on this day.  She has been widely credited with making the first American flag.  She died on January 30, 1836.  Read the Betsy Ross flag story.
            Katharina A. von Schlegel wrote the words to, "Be still My Soul."  See 1899

1753
            October 31, Virginia's lieutenant Governor Dinwiddle sent George Washington to the Ohio Territory to demand that the French leave the region.  Dinwiddle learned the French had built Fort Presque Isle near Lake Erie and Fort Le Boeuf, which he saw as threatening Virginia's interests in the Ohio Country.
            The British Museum in London was established.

1754
            July 3, The Battle of Fort Necessity, or the Battle of the Great Meadows took place on this date in what is now the mountaintop hamlet of Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.  The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender.  The battle, along with the May 28 Battle of Jumonville Glen, contributed to a series of military escalations that resulted in the global Seven Years' War.

1759
            August 24, William Wilberforce was born in Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom.  He was an English politician, philanthropist, and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.  He died on July 29, 1833 in London, United Kingdom at the age of 73.  The movie "Amazing Grace" tells the story of Mr. Wilberforce's life.      

1760
            October, George III becomes King of England.
            Adam Clarke was born from 1760 -2762 in the town land of Moybeg Kirley near Tobermore in Northern Ireland,  He was a British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar.  He is chiefly remembered for writing a commentary on the Bible which took him 40 years to complete and which was a primary Methodist theological resource for two centuries.  He died in 1832

1761
            William Carey was born August 17.  He was an English Baptist missionary and a Particular Baptist minister, known as the 'father of modern missions."  He was one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society.  As a missionary in the Danish colony, Serampore, India, he translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects.  He lived a quiet life until his death in 1834, revising his Bengali Bible, preaching, and teaching students.  The couch on which he died, on June 9, is now housed at Regent's Park College, the Baptist hall of University of Oxford.

1763
            February 10, The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War. A defeated France gives up most of her claims to The North American Territory.  Spain ceded Florida to Britain for the return of Cuba.

1764
            April, The British Parliament passes the Sugar Act to raise money through import taxes on the colonies.

1765
            March 22, The Stamp Act, which imposed heavy taxes on the Colonies, was passed by Parliament. 
            May, Virginia's House of Burgesses adopts Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves, protesting taxation with out representation.
           August, Angry mobs force stamp distributors to resign.  Many colonists agree not to import British goods.
           October, Colonial delegates to the Congress in New York reject Parliament's right to tax the colonies.

1766
            March, Pressured by British merchants, Parliament repeals the unsuccessful Stamp Act but restates its supreme authority over the colonies by passing the Declaratory Act.

1767
            June, The Townshend Acts impose duties on glass, tea, and other items imported into the colonies.  The colonists again refuse to buy British goods.

1768
            Work began on Monticello the home of Thomas Jefferson.

1770
            March 5, British soldiers fire without orders, into an angry Boston crowd, killing five people.  This incident soon becomes known as the Boston Massacre.  It was also known as the Boston riot and was the incident, which helped spark the rebellion in some of the British American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War.  A heavy British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that boiled over into incitement of brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being attacked by a rioting crowd.
            April, Parliament repeals all the duties except that on tea.

1772
            William Cowper wrote the words to "There is a Fountain".  To hear the melody and read the words.

1773
            January 1, John Newton preaches on 1 Chronicles 17:16, 17 and uses the words he wrote to "Amazing Grace" to accompany the sermon.  See more about Amazing Grace.
           May, The Tea Act gives the British East India Company a monopoly on sales.  In protest, patriots force ships to return to England without unloading their cargoes of tea.
           December 16,  American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the vessels of the East Indian Company docked in the Boston harbor and dumped all the tea that was on the three ships into the ocean.  They emptied 342 chests of tea which was valued at more than 10,000 pounds.  This even became known as the "Boston Tea Party."
          
1774
            March, Parliament closes Boston harbor to all trade as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
            May, Virginia's House of Burgesses supports Boston by observing a day of fasting and prayer.  Virginia calls for a unified colonial response through a boycott of British goods.
            September 5, Delegates from all the Colonies except Georgia convened for the First Continental Congress.
            September 5, Peyton Randolph was elected 1st President of the Continental Congress.  His term lasted 48 days and ended on October 22.  He was unable to continue his term because of poor health.  He previously served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.  He was 53 years old.
            October, The First Continental Congress declares that Americans are entitled to the rights of "life, liberty, and property."
            October 22, Henry Middleton from the state of South Carolina was elected 2nd President of the Continental Congress.  Previously he served as Speaker, of South Carolina Commons House of Assembly.  He resigned the Presidency because he was opposed independence from Great Britain.  He served for 5 days.  He was 57 years old.
            November, Yorktown residents stage a southern tea party, boarding the ship Virginia and dumping chests of tea into the York River.

1775
            February, Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.  British General Gage is authorized to use force to control the colony.
            March 23, Patrick Henry gave his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" speech.
            April 19, The battle of Lexington signaled the start of the American Revolution.  The War for Independence starts..  British solders tried to capture a munitions storage at Concord, Massachusetts and were met with resistance from embattled farmers (Minutemen) and fired the shot heard around the world.  This was the start of the Revolutionary War.  Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, seizes Virginia's store of gunpowder at Williamsburg, Virginia.
            May 10, The Second Continental Congress began; George Washington is appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental forces.
            May 10,  Peyton Randolph was elected again as 3rd President of the Continental Congress.  He resigned on May 24, after serving 15 days to return to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
            May 24, John Hancock was elected 4th President of the Continental congress.  He served for 890 days.  He was 38 years old at the time.  His term ended on October 29, 1777.  Previously he was the President of Massachusetts Provincial Congress.   See 1785
            June, The British win the battle of Bunker and Breed's Hills in Boston, but they suffer heavy losses. 
            November, Virginia's royal governor issues an emancipation proclamation freeing "all indentured Servants (and) Negroes" who will fight alongside the British.
             John Asplund, the first Swedish Baptist in America.

1776
            January, Thomas Paine's influential pamphlet, "Common Sense" was published.
            May 4, Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of Great Britian.
            May, France secretly begins sending money and supplies to the colonies.
            May, Betsy Ross reports that she sewed the first American flag.
            June 7, Acting under the instruction of the Virginia Convention, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress proposing independence for the colonies.  The Lee Resolution contained three parts: a declaration of independence, a call to form foreign alliances, and "a plan for confederation."
            June 10, Congress appointed a committee of five to draft a statement of independence for the colonies,  The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with the actual writing delegated to Jefferson.
            Jefferson drafted the statement between June 11 and 28.  As a scholar well-versed in the ideas and ideals of the French and English Enlightenments, Jefferson found his greatest inspiration in the language and arguments of English philosopher John Locke, who had justified England's "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 on the basis of man's "natural rights."
            July 2, The momentous decision of the Continental Congress to sever its ties to Great Britain came on this date, which is the date that John Adams thought should be celebrated by future generations.   The Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, and edited by his colleagues in the Continental Congress, was adopted 2 days later.
            July 4, The Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress.  The second sentence of the document reads as follows:  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. This sentence is called one of the best-known sentences in the English Language.
            July 5, Under the supervision to the Jefferson committee, the approved Declaration was printed.
            July 8, The Liberty Bell rings in Philadelphia, for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. 
            July 19, Congress ordered that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment with a new title, "the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America," and "that the same, when engrossed, be sighed by every member of Congress."  Engrossing is the process of copying an official document in a large hand.  The engrosser of the Declaration was probably Timothy Matlock, an assistant to Charles Thomson, secretary to the Congress.
            August 2, John Hancock, the President of the Congress signed the engrossed copy with a bold signature.  The other delegates, following custom, signed beginning at the right with signatures arranged by states from northernmost New Hampshire to southernmost Georgia.
       Although all delegates were not present on August 2, fifty-six delegates eventually sighed the document.  Some delegates, including Robert R. Livingston of New York, a member of the drafting committee, never signed the Declaration.

1777
            January, Washington defeats the British at Princeton, New Jersey.  The Continental army goes into winter encampment at Morristown.
            June 14, The Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution that stated, "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."  Some believe the design may have been derived from the flag and jack of the British East India Company.  Although Betsy Ross and others were commissioned to produce flags, there is no evidence that verifies that Ross sewed the first.
            September, The British occupy Philadelphia after winning the Battle of Brandywine Creek.
            October, Washington is defeated at the Battle of Germantown outside Philadelphia.
            October, British general John Burgoyne surrenders his army of 6,000 men at Saratoga, New York, a turning point in the war.
            November 1, The Official First National Thanksgiving Proclamation was delivered by the Continental Congress.
            November 1, Henry Laurens of South Carolina was elected the 5th President of the Continental Congress.  He served for 404 days.  His term ended on December 9, 1778.  Previously he was President of South Carolina Provincial Congress, Vice President, South Carolina.  He was 53 years old at the time.
            November 15, Congress ratitifed the Articles of Confederation.
            Winter, Washington's army winters at Valley Forge.  Severe weather and food shortages cause terrible hardships for the army.
            The constitution of Vermont (then an independent state) was the first to end slavery and enact universal male suffrage.

1778
            February 6,  France pledges financial and military support to the United States in their  independence, in effect declaring war on Great Britain.
            March 17, Captain James Cook arrives on the shore of present-day Oregon while exploring the west coast of America in search of the Northwest Passage.  He records some of the first encounters with Native Americans in this area.  He also touched the coast at Nootka Sound and confirmed the English claim to Oregon.
            June,  The Battle of Monmouth Court House in New Jersey ends in a draw, but the British leave the battlefield.
            December 10, John Jay of the state of New York, was elected 6th President of the Continental Congress.  He served for 293 Days and was 32 years of age at the time.  His term was over on September 28, 1779.  He later became the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and served from 1789 to 1795.

1779
             February - The publication of Olney Hymns establishes John Newton's reputation as a hymn-writer.  This publication is the combined work of curate John Newton (1725-1807) and his poet friend, William Cowper (1731-1800).  The hymns were written for the use in Newton's rural parish, which was made up of relatively poor and uneducated followers.
            Fall,  An American expedition burns the villages of Britain's Iroquois allies in New York.  With the war at a stalemate in the north, the British refocus their efforts to the south.
            September 28,  Samuel Huntington from Connecticut was elected 7th President of the Continental Congress.  He served for 62 days and was 48 years old at the time.  His term was over on July 10, 1781.  He previously served as Associate Judge, on the Connecticut Superior Court.    
            September-October,  A joint French-American attempt to retake Savannah, Georgia, fails with heavy losses.  The French are unwilling to continue the siege leaving many Americans discouraged with the French alliance.
           .

1780
            May, Americans surrender Charleston, South Carolina, the worst defeat of the war.  This defeat begins a period of bloody conflict in the Carolinas between the loyalists and the patriots.
            July, Robert Raikes, organized the first Sunday School in Gloucester, England.  

1781
     January,  Continental infantry and militia defeat the British infantry and cavalry at Cowpens, South Carolina.
            March,  At Guilford Court House, North Carolina, General Nathanael Greene loses to British general Charles Cornwallis.  Cornwallis, however, leaves the Carolinas to join British forces already in Virginia.
            July 10, Thomas McKean of Delaware became the 8th President of the Continental Congress.  He served for 119 days and was 47 years of age.  He terminated his Presidency on November 5, 1781.  He was Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court before serving the Continental Congress.  He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
            August 2,  General Cornwallis makes Yorktown his base operations and fortifies the town.  Most of the townspeople flee before the British arrive.
            August 19,  Washington's and Rochambeau's combined American French army leaves New York for Virginia.  A French fleet heads for the Chesapeake Bay.
            September 5,  In a battle off the Virginia Capes, a French fleet drives off a British force and takes control of the Chesapeake Bay.
            September 26,  The Allied army arrives in Williamsburg, Virginia.
            October 6,  Allied troops dig the first siege line (redoubts, a defended position or a protective barrier, and gun batteries connected by trenches) at Yorktown.  Three days later, they begin bombarding the British defenses.
            October 14,  British redoubts nine and ten are captured during night attacks.  The allies move closer to Yorktown.
            October 16-17,  With supplies running low, General Cornwallis fails to escape across the York River for one reason, because of a storm.  Cornwallis requests a cease-fire to discuss terms for surrender.
            October 19,  General Cornwallis surrenders his army of over 7,000 men to the allied American-French forces ending the British military action and the war.
            November 5,  John Hanson of Maryland was elected to be the 9th President of the Continental Congress.  He served 365 days and was 66 years of age.  He left his office on November 4, 1782.  Before being President he served in the Maryland House of Delegates.

1782
            March,  Lord North resigns as prime minister of Britain.  Great Britain begins peace negotiations with the United States.
            August 7, The original Purple Heart, designated as the Badge of Military Merit , was established by George Washington--then the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army--by order from his Newburgh, New York headquarters.  The Badge of Military Merit was only awarded to three Revolutionary War soldiers by Washington himself.  Washington authorized his subordinate officers to issue Badges of Merit as appropriate. Although never abolished, the award of the badge was not proposed again officially until after World War 1.  
            November 4,  Elias Boudinot of New Jersey was elected to be the 10th President of the Continental Congress.  He served 365 days an reached the age of 42.  He left office on November 3, 1783.  Previously he was Commissary of Prisoners for the Continental Army.  He was born in 1740 and died in 1821.   

1783
     September 3,  The Treaty of Paris signed.  The final treaties between the United States and Great Britain, ending hostilities, are signed in Paris.  In other words the treaty marked the end of the Revolutionary War.
            November 3, Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania was elected to be the 11th President of the Continental Congress.  He served 214 days at the age of 39.  He left office on June 3, 1784.  Previously he was a Major General in the Continental Army, and 1st and 3rd Quartermaster General during the American Revolution.  He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.  He also was the first Governor of the state of Pennsylvania.
            December 4,  The last British troops leave the United States.  The withdrawal of the last British troops from Staten Island and Long Island.  This officially ended the British occupation of the Atlantic coast of the United States.  After serving, US President George Washington appointed him Director of the United States Mint, serving from 1785 until 1805.

1784
            February 28,  John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
            November 30, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia was elected as the 12th President of the Continental Congress.  He served 340 days at the age of 52.  He left office on November 30, 1784.  Previously he was with the Virginia House of Burgesses.  He is best known for his motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain.  He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
            There is a growing sense of crisis in the New Nation.  The British refuse to give up their forts on the Western Frontier.  The weak confederation government is unable to pay the national debt, regulate trade, resolve conflicts between states, or end an economic recession.

1785
            November 23,  John Hancock from of Massachusetts was elected as the 13th President of the Second Continental Congress.  He served 195 days at the age of 48.  He left office on June 5, 1786.  Previously he served as the first and third Governor of Massachusetts.  He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the US Declaration of Independence.  He also served as the 4th President of the Continental Congress. See 1775

1786
            June 6, Nathaniel Gorham from of Massachusetts was elected as the 14th President of the Second Continental Congress.  He served 151 days at the age of 48.  He left office on November 3, 1786.  Previously he served on the Board of War and Ordnance, which was created by the Second Continental Congress as a special standing committee to oversee the American Continental Army's administration and to make recommendations regarding the army to Congress. 
            July 6, The Dollar is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States.  This is the first time a nation has adopted a decimal coinage system. 
            August 8, The Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of the US dollar.
            September,  Representatives from five states discuss the regulation of commerce.  A new convention is scheduled to meet in 1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation.
            Winter,  Desperate Massachusetts farmers, suffering economically, resist the seizure of their property for debts or taxes.  A sense of crisis and fear of anarchy makes the reform of the confederation government urgent.

1787
            February 2, Arthur St.Clair from of Pennsylvania was elected as the 14th President of the Continental Congress.  He served 276 days at the age of 48.  He left office on November 4, 1787.  Previously he was a Major General in the Continental Army.
            February 21, After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of the confederation.
            May 25,  The Federal Constitutional Convention convenes with George Washington presiding.  The the intent or purpose of this convention was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one.  One of the accomplishments was to draft a new constitution. 
            July,  The "Great Compromise," providing for equal state representation in the Senate and representation based on population in the lower house, breaks a deadlock between small and large states. .
            July 13, The Confederation Congress adopts the Northwest Ordinance providing for the settlement of western lands and the admission of new states into the union
            September 17, The final draft of  The United States Constitution was adopted  by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It was then sent to the states for approval.  The United States Constitution is the shortest and oldest written constitution still in use by any nation in the world today. All twelve state delegations approve the constitution and the Convention formally adjourns.
            December 7,  Delaware is the first state to ratify the new constitution.

1788
            January 22,  Cyrus Griffin from of the state of Virginia was elected as the 15th, and last, President of the Continental Congress.  He served 299 days at the age of 39.  He left office on November 15, 1788.  He resigned after the ratification of the United States Constitution rendered the old Congress obsolete.  Previously he served as judge for the Virginia Court of Appeals.  After he resigned the Presidency he became a United States federal judge.
           June 21,  New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, putting it into effect.  Within a month, the two remaining key states of Virginia and New York also ratify the Constitution.  North Carolina signed on November 21, 1789,   and Rhode Island, on May 29, 1790.

1789
            March 4, The first Congress under the constitution convenes in New York City.  George Washington becomes the first President of the United States.  This link will give a biography of each United States President.  George Washington was sworn in at Federal Hall in New York City.  President Washington was elected by a majority of Electoral College.  He was not a member of any political party but did adhere to some Federalist principals.  Previously he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.  (1775-1787)
            April 30, George Washington is inaugurated as the first president of the United States.  
            May 3, John Berry Meachum was born into slavery on this day.  He was best known for his important roles as a spiritual leader, educator and abolitionist,  best known for his important roles as a spiritual leader, educator and abolitionist.  He was the son of a Baptist preacher, was apprenticed as a youth to a white carpenter under whose tutelage learned the craft of cabinetmaking and coopering (barrel maker).  Of unusual talent and with a complying master, he eventually saved enough money to purchase his freedom and that of his father The son of a Baptist preacher, he was apprenticed as a youth to a white carpenter under whose tutelage he learned the craft of cabinetmaking and coopering. Of unusual talent and with a complying master, Meachum eventually saved enough money to purchase his freedom and that of his father.   In 1847, the slave state of Missouri banned all education for black people, one of severral restrictions on the lives of both enslaved blacks and free people of color,  It also prohibited them from having independent black religious services without a white  law enforcement officer present, or from holding any meetings for education or religion.  In response, Meachum moved his classes to a steamboat in the middle of the Mississippi River, which was beyond the reach of Missouri law.  He provided the school with a library, desks, and chairs and called it the "Floating Freedom School."  John died on February 19, 1854, while speaking to his congregation during church services.  See 1847 for more about Pastor Meachum's life.
            June 8, James Madison introduced the proposed Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives.
            September,  Congress sends twelve constitutional amendments protecting individual rights to the states for approval.
            September 24, Congress establishes a Supreme Court, 13 district courts, three ad hoc circuit courts, and the position of Attorney General.
            September 25, Congress approves 12 Amendments and sends them to the states for ratification.
            November 26,  In October 1789, with the recently finished draft of the Bill of Rights on his desk, President George Washington proclaimed a very special Thanksgiving Day for the young nation.  Declaring this day to be set aside for Americans to "unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, "Washington implored his fellow citizens to thank God for the Constitution "now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed."             
           The Supreme Court of the United States was implemented; under the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Court was to be composed of six members--though the number of justices has been nine for almost all of its history, this number is set by Congress, not the Constitution.  The court convened for the first time on February 2, 1790.

1790
            George Washington served as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            January 9, U.S. President George Washington give the first State of the Union Address.
            February 2, The Supreme Court convenes for the fist time after an unsuccessful attempt on February 1.
            March 1, The first United States census is authorized.  
            May 29, Rhode Island ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the last of the 13 original states to do so.
             July 16, The Residence Act provided for a new permanent capital to be located on the Potomac River, the exact area to be selected by President Washington.  See 1799
            July 31, Inventor Samuel Hopkins becomes the first to be issued a U.S. patent for an improved method of making potash.
            August 2, The first United States census showed a population of 3,929,625.
            August 4, Alexander Hamilton founded the Revenue Cutter Service, later known as the U.S. Coast Guard.

1791
            George Washington served as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            February 25, The First Bank of the United States is a National Historic Landmark located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania within Independence National Historical Park.  The First Bank was a bank chartered by  the United States Congress. The charter was for 20 years. The Bank was created to handle the financial needs and requirements of the central government of the newly formed United States, which had previously been thirteen individual colonies with their own banks, currencies, and financial institutions and policies.
            December 15, Congress added ten amendments to the U. S. Constitution Virginia was the eleventh state to ratify what is now known as The Bill of Rights, (the first ten amendments to the Constitution).

1792
            George Washington served as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President.
            April 2, The US Mint was formed.  The renowned scientist David Rittenhouse was the director from 1792 to 1795.
            May 11, Captain Robert Gray entered the Columbia River aboard the American sailing ship, Columbia Rediviva , thus naming this important waterway.
            August 29, Charles Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut.  Finney was the youngest of fifteen children, the son of farmers, Finney never attended college, but his six-foot three-inch stature, piercing eyes, musical skill and leadership abilities gained him recognition in his community.  He studied as an apprentice to become a lawyer, but after a dramatic conversion experience and baptism in Adams, New York, he gave up law to preach the gospel.  At age 29 under George Washington Gale, Finney studied to become a licensed minister in the Presbyterian Church, though he had many misgivings about the fundamental doctrines taught in the denomination.  He died on August 16, 1875 at the age of 82.
            October 29, Mount Hood in Oregon is named after the British naval officer Samuel Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
            Read a written historical account from the notes of Harley Hallgren, of what occurred in and around this year.
            Construction started on the building of the White House in Washington D.C.  It was completed in 1800.
                       
1793
            George Washington served as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            February 25, George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
            March 4, George Washington is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.
            March 12, Sam Houston was born on this date in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent.  Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, US Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor of the state.  He was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier.  He died on July 26, 1863 at the age of 70 in Huntsville, Texas.
            April 1, The Unsen volcano erupts in Japan and causes an earthquake; about 53,00 are killed.
            September 18, President George Washington sets the foundation stone for the U.S.Capitol building in Washington DC .  The Capitol is among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world.  The Senate and the House of Representatives have met here for more than two centuries.  The US Capitol Building has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored, today, it stands as a monument not only to its builders but also to the American people and their government.

1794
            George Washington remained as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            March 27, George Washington finally persuaded Congress to build 6 frigates, to help protect its merchant ships and seamen.  This chain of events created the United States Navy.
            April 11, Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  He was an American politician, pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator for Massachusetts.  Everett was affiliated with the Whig Political Party, served as U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State.  He also taught at Harvard University and served as its president.  He died on January 15, 1865 in Boston Massachusetts at the age of 70.  An address at the opening of the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York, Edward Everett remarked:   "I do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient magicians, who in the morning of the world, went up to the hilltops of Central Asia and, ignorant of the true God, adored the most glorious work of His hand.  But I am filled with amazement, when I am told, that, in this enlightened age and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and yet say in their heart, 'There is no God.'"                                           From the book, America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations Pg. 230 
                                                                                                    
             Anti-Federalist formed the Democratic-Republican Party, forerunner of the present Democratic Party.  The Democratic-Republican Party was dissolved in 1825.

1795
            George Washington remained as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            The Mariners Temple was established in New York City.  It is now located on 3rd and Henry Streets in lower Manhattan.

1796
            George Washington remained as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            September 17, George Washington issued his Farewell Address.  The letter was originally prepared in 1792 with the help of James Madison, as Washington prepared to retire following a single term in office.  However, he set aside the letter and ran for a second term after his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, convinced him that the growing divisions between the newly formed Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties, along with the current state of foreign affairs, would tear the country apart in the absence of his leadership.

1797
            George Washington remained as President of the United States.  John Adams was his Vice President. 
            January 31, Franz Schubert was born on this date in Vienna, Austria.  He wrote 145 songs or pieces, was an alcoholic and had no real success in his life.  He was a torch bearer at Beethoven's funeral.  He died November 19,1828 in Vienna.
            March 4, George Washington left office of US President.
            March 4, John Adams was inaugurated in Philadelphia as the 2nd U.S. President.  He belonged to the Federalist Party.  

1798
            John Adams served as President of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President.  
            April 28, The mutiny on the British Royal Naval ship, Bounty, took place in the South Pacific.  The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against commanding officer Lieutenant William Bligh.  According to most accounts, the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific Island of Tahiti and were further motivated by harsh treatment from their captain. 
            June-July, The repressive Alien and Sedition Acts became law.

1799
            John Adams remained as President of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President.
            September 9, The new Federal city of Washington, on the Potomac River, was named in honor of George Washington. The district was named the Territory of Columbia, Columbia being a poetic name for the United States in use at that time.  See 1790 
            December 14, George Washington dies at Mount Vernon.  He was 67 years old.

1800
            John Adams remained as President of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President.
            March 20, Alessandro Volta reported of his discovery of the electric battery.
            November 1, John Adams became the first President to occupy the Whitehouse.
            November 17, Congress held its first session in Washington.

1801
            John Adams remained as President of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President.
            March 4, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as third President of the United States in Washington, D.C.  He belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party.
            May 1, The U.S. waged war against Tripoli to end acts of piracy. 
            May 10, the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. 
            1801-1805, First Barbary War took place; it was also known as the Tripolitan War or the Barbary Coast War, was the first of two wars fought between the United States and the Northwest African Berber Muslim states know collectively as the Barbary States. 

1802
            Thomas Jefferson served as President of the United States.  He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.  Aaron Burr was his Vice President.

1803
            Thomas Jefferson remained as President of the United States.  Aaron Burr was his Vice President.
            December 20, America and France agree to the Louisiana Purchase that extends the United States territory west to the "Continental Divide."
            Read a written historical account from the notes of Harley Hallgren, of what occurred in and around this year.

1804
            Thomas Jefferson remained as President of the United States.  Aaron Burr was his Vice President.
            February 16, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a party of 75 volunteers into Tripoli's well guarded harbor and captured the USS Philadelphia, which was earlier captured by the Tripolitians.  It was was on fire by Decatur's seamen in Tripoli Harbor.
             March 4, Tomas Jefferson was elected President for another term.  George Clinton served as his Vice President
            May 14, The Lewis and Clark Expedition began to explore the West.  They departed from Camp Dubois, near present day Hartford, Illinois, and began their historic journey.
            July 11, Vice President Aaron Burr wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken Heights, New Jersey, but he died the next day.  At that time dueling was legal in most area's of the United States.

1805
            Thomas Jefferson remained as President of the United States.  Aaron Burr was his Vice President.
            March 4, Thomas Jefferson was elected to a second term as US President.  George Clinton was elected as his Vice President.  He and John C. Calhoun are the only persons to have served as Vice President under two different US Presidents.  
            June 4, The Pasha of what is now Libya made peace on American Terms.  The US Navy, barely a decade old, had reached out 5,000 miles to safeguard our nations trade, ensuring that our merchant vessels could sail the Mediterranean unmolested.
            September 27, George Muëller was born on this day.  He was a Christian evangelist and Directory of Orphanages in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life.  He was well-known for providing an education to the children under his care, to the point where he was accused of raising the poor above their natural station in life.  He began running from God at an early age but then came to realize finally at the age of 20, the burden of his sins overcame him and he trusted Christ as Saviour. "At last I saw Christ as my Saviour.  I believed in Him and gave myself to Him.  The burden rolled from off me, and a great love for Christ filled my soul.  That was more than fifty years ago.  I loved Jesus Christ then, but I loved Him more the year after, and more the year after that, and more every year since."  (George Mueller)    He died on March 10, 1898 at he age of 92.
            November 7, Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific coast. "Great joy in camp we are in view of the Ocean, (in the morning when fog cleared off just below last village (first on leaving this village)...) this great Pacific ocean which we been so long anxious to see, and the roaring or noise made by the waves breaking on the rocky shores (as I suppose) may be heard distinctly."

1876
            Ulysses S. Grant was served as President of the United States.  The office of Vice President was left vacant until the election of 1877.
            March 10, Alexander Graham Bell yelled those famous words, "Mr. Watson, Come here, I want to see you!"  The business of providing telephone service was off and running.
            "The Manual" of the First Baptist Church of Portland, was written.  In it we read:  "Such are the beginnings of this letter one which an account of the importance of the position it occupies and the purity of the Christian doctrines it seeks to disseminated, we may well hope will yet, "become a thousand".   Return to 1862
            Carl Gustav Boberg wrote the words to the beloved hymn, "How Great Thou Art."

1877
            Ulysses S. Grant was served as President of the United States. 
            March 4, Rutherford B. Hayes becomes President of the United States.  He was the 19th U.S. President.  He ran under the Republican ticket.  Previously he was the Governor of Ohio.  William A. Wheeler served as the 19th Vice President.
            April 19, Ole Evinrude or Ole Evenrudstuen was born in Oslo, Norway.  He was a Norwegian-American inventor, know for the invention of the first outboard motor with practical commercial application.  In October 1881, his father emigrated to America, followed the next year by Evinrude, his mother and two siblings.  Three additional siblings were born in America.  The family settled on a farm in Ripley Lake near Cambridge, Wisconsin. At the age of sixteen, Evinrude went to Madison, where he worked in machinery stores and studied engineering on his own.  He became a machinist while working at various machinery tool firms in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.  He died on July 12, 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
            May 6, Realizing that his people are weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
            July 9, The Bell Telephone Company was formed by Gardiner Hubbard who was Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law.
            November 21, Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
            By the end this year there were 3,000 telephones in service.
            Swedish Baptist Theological Seminary relocates from the University of Chicago campus to Morgan Park, Illinois.

1878
            Rutherford B. Hays served as President of the United States.   William A. Wheeler served as the Vice President.
            February 21,  The first telephone book was published in New Haven, Connecticut, by the New Haven District Telephone Company. It was one page long and held fifty names - no numbers were listed as the operator would connect you. The page was divided into four heading residential, professional, miscellaneous, and essential service listings.  See Web Site having to do with History of the Telephone.
            Local telephone service in Portland, was established by the American Telephone and District Telegraph Co.

1879
            Rutherford B. Hays served as President of the United States.   William A. Wheeler served as the Vice President.
            March 14, Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdow of Württemberg in the German Empire.  He died on April 18, 1955.
            May 25, Electric light arrived in Portland.
            June 12-14, organization of the Swedish Baptist General Conference of America, at Village Creek, Iowa.  John Ongman, moderator; A.P. Ekman, recording secretary; John A. Edgren, preacher of conference sermon.
            November 4, Will Rogers was born.  He was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, actor, and on of the best-known celebrities in the 1920's and 1930's.  Rogers died on August 15, 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska.
            Henry Villard incorporates the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company and acquires the Oregon Steam Navigation Company.
            The Second Baptist Church developed under Rev. Addison Jones.  Today it is know as the Hinson Memorial Baptist Church.
            Portland's population was 20,000. 

1889
            Grover Cleveland served as President of the United States.  Thomas A. Hendricks was his Vice President.
            Uno M. Brauer became our third senior pastor.  He served during the years 1889-1890.
            March 4, Benjamin Harrison was elected the 23rd President of the United States.  He ran on the Republican Ticket.   Previously he served as US Senator from Indiana.  His Vice President was Levi P. Morton.           
            March 31, Eiffel Tower in Paris inaugurated.  (Tour Eiffel) was the worlds' tallest building from 1889 to 1930. 
            May 6, The Eiffel Tower opened.
            November 11, Washington is admitted to the Union, becoming the 42nd State.
            December 28, The Swedish Baptist Conference of the North Pacific Coast was organized.  It later became the Columbia Conference in 1930.
            Canadian Pacific Railway establishes a line of steamers between this city and China.
            There was a fire in Forest Park in Portland that burned 400 acres.
            Fulton Park street car line started-the first electric trolley line in Portland.
            The Portland Hotel is completed.
            The United States was the largest Steel Producer in the world.
             Carl Gustaf Lagergren came to America from Sweden, and began his service of 33 years as dean of  Bethel  Theological Seminary.  He was the longest serving dean in the history of the seminary.

1890
            Benjamin Harrison served as President of the United States.  Levi P. Morton was his Vice President.
            Uno M. Brauer was our pastor this year.
            February 28, The Cedarhome Baptist Church in Stanwood, Washington was organized.
            September 25, Sequoia became the 2nd US National park after Mackinac Island was turned over to the state of Michigan on March 2, 1895.  Sequoia is located in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California..  The park contains Mount Whitney, which is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, at 14,505 feet above sea level.
            October 1, The U.S. Congress signed a bill making General Grant's Grove, Sequoia, and Yosemite the third, fourth, and fifth National Parks.  General Grants National Park was Disbanded on March 4, 1940 and Incorporated into Kings Canyon National Park, which set the above named parks back one number in order.
            October 23, Henrietta Cornelia Mears was born on this day.  She was a Christian educator and author who had a significant impact on evangelical Christianity in the 20th century.  Miss Mears also founded Gospel Light, a publishing company, and Forest Home, a Christian conference center.  Among the many she influenced were Bill Bright and his wife Vonette, and Billy Graham.  Henrietta Mears died on March 19, 1963.
            The city's cable car line began service to the Portland Heights.
            August, Erickson opens the Nine Bar Saloon at Burnside Street between Second and Third Avenues.
            Taxi (hack) rates, for immediate use, one person, not over one mile=50 cents.
            Population of City of Portland 72,357.
            U.S. National Bank was organized.
            The Columbia paddle wheeler Bailey Gatzert, the first overnight passenger vessel on the river, was built.  Both the fastest-at more than 20 miles per hour-and the most elegantly appointed, she sets the standard for passenger sternwheelers to come.

1891
            Benjamin Harrison served as President of the United States.  Levi P. Morton was his Vice President.
            Rev. August Westerberg was our fourth senior pastor. He served during the years 1891 - 1893.
            July 6, East Portland and Albina consolidated with Portland.  Previously East Portland and Albina were  historical cities before they were made part of the city .
            The Madison Bridge opened. The original bridge was replaced twice and is now known as the Hawthorne Bridge.
            A machine invented this year made mass production of the Fig Newton possible.
            The game of Basket Ball was invented by Dr. James Naismith to condition young athletes during the winter.  It consisted of peach baskets and a soccer style ball.

1892
            Benjamin Harrison served as President of the United States.  Levi P. Morton was his Vice President.
            Rev. August Westerberg was our pastor.
            January 1, the immigration station opens at Ellis Island.
            January 14, Martin Niemöller was born in Lippstadt, German Empire.  He was a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor.  For his opposition to the Nazis' state control of the churches, Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945.  He is best known for his statement, "First they came..."  He died on March 6, 1984 in Wiesbaden, West Germany.
            January 20, The first public game of basketball was played in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Other reports state the first game was played on March 11, of this year at the Armory Hill YMCA.  Basketball was first played in the Olympic games in 1936 in Berlin, when the USA beat Canada 19-8 for the gold medal.  The game was played outdoors, in the mud and rain, on a tennis court.  
            May, the church voted to withdraw from North Pacific Coast (Columbia) Conference.
            April 15, Corrie ten Boom was born on this day.  She was a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II.  In December, 1967, Corrie was honored as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel.  In 1970, Corrie ten Boom co-wrote her autobiography, The Hiding Place, released in 1971 and which was made into a movie of the same name two year later starring Jeanette Clift as Corrie.  We had the privilege of having Corrie as the guest speaker at Temple on Easter Sunday evening  April 10, 1977.  She died on April 15, 1983.  A tree was planted in her honor at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
            June 20, The last day horses were used to pull streetcars in Portland.
            October 26, Westminster Presbyterian Church at 1624 NE Hancock, in Portland, was organized.
            November 8, Grover Cleveland was elected president of the United States.  He was the 22nd and 24th elected President.  In 1988 he won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college.
            First Baptist Church-(White Temple) on S.W. 12th and Taylor has cornerstone laid for new building.
            The Pledge of Allegiance was written this year by Francis Bellamy.
            The Baptist Union Theological Seminary, of which the Swedish Baptist Seminary was a department, becomes affiliated with the University of Chicago Divinity School.

 1893
            Benjamin Harrison served as President of the United States.  Levi P. Morton was his Vice President.
            Rev. John Olander was pastor.  Rev. Olander was our fifth senior pastor.  He served during the years 1893-1894.
            March 4, Grover Cleveland was elected the 24th President of the United States.  He was also the 22nd President and was elected for another term.   He ran on the Democratic Ticket.  Adlai Stevenson I served as his Vice President.
            Erik Hjalmar East felt the call of God to go the Foreign Field.
            Union Station is an improvement of this year.
            There was an amendment to the Constitution proposed to rename the U.S. the "United States of the Earth."

1894
            Grover Cleveland served as President of the United States.  Adlai Stevenson was the Vice President.
            Andrew Johnson was interim pastor during the time we did not have a senior pastor.
            February 3, Norman Rockwell was born in New York City.  He was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator.  His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United stares for their reflection of American culture.  Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for the Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades.  He died at Stockbridge, Massachusetts on November 8, 1978.
            June 6, The Willamette River crested at 33 feet, causing the worst flood in Portland's history.
            July 8, The new building for The First Baptist Church of Portland was dedicated.  The church was sometimes referred to as the White Temple because of the color of its exterior stone work. It was then located at SW 12th and Taylor.  It is located now at 909 SW 11th Ave. 
            November, Rev. David Oberg was elected pastor.  Rev. Oberg was our sixth senior pastor.  He served from 1894 to 1896.
            First Burnside Bridge opened.  See 1926
            First Congregational Church building completed at Park and Madison.
            July 8, The new building for The First Baptist Church of Portland was dedicated.  The church was sometimes referred to as the White Temple because of the color of its exterior stone work. It was then located at SW 12th and Taylor.  It is located now at 909 SW 11th Ave. 
            December 29, The name "First Scandinavian Baptist Church of Portland" was changed to "The First Swedish Baptist Church."  
            See Tax Lot information on Caruthers Street Church.

1895
            Grover Cleveland served as President of the United States.  Adlai Stevenson was the Vice President.
            Rev. David Oberg was our pastor.
            February 26, David Campbell became 1st assistant to the Portland Fire Chief.
            June, the conference name was changed to the Swedish Baptist Conference.
            June 1, David Campbell became Portland's Fire Chief.  See 1885.
            July 4, America the Beautiful was first published in "The Congregationalist."  The poem was written by Katharine Lee Bates.
            Present City Hall completed.  The first steel frame, fireproof structure in the city.
            Astoria's railroad work started.  An Andrew B. Hammond enterprise.
            Ignaz Schwinn created Arnold, Schwinn and Company and started to make bikes.
            The Philadelphia Bourse Building, the first commodities exchange in the United States, was completed.  The Building is located adjacent to Philadelphia's historic Independence Mall (directly across the Mall from The Liberty Bell Center)  The building was one of the first steel-framed buildings to be constructed.  The concept of the Bourse,  meaning a place of exchange, was bought to Philadelphia in 1890 by George E. Bartol, a prosperous Philadelphia grain and commodities exporter.  It was modeled from the great Bourse in Hamburg, Germany.

    1896
Grover Cleveland served as President of the United States.  Adlai Stevenson was the Vice President.
            Rev. David Oberg was our pastor.  He resigned the pastorate sometime during this year.  Alex Vester was our interim pastor during the time we were waiting for a new senior pastor.
            Sylvester Pennager was the Mayor of Portland.  See website for complete list of the mayors of the City of Portland.
            January 4, Utah received statehood.  It was the 45 state to receive statehood into the union.  The Capital is located in Salt Lake City.
            March 14, The Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment.  The baths were built on the western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894-1896) Adolph Sutro.  Eventually, the baths were converted into an ice skating rink until 1964 when the property was sold to developers for a planned high-rise apartment complex.  A fire in 1966 destroyed the building while it was in the process of being demolished.
            April 6, The opening ceremonies of the first modern Olympic Summer Games were held in Athens, Greece.
            May 22, Alfred D. Nobel died, leaving a fund of over eight million dollars.
            May 26, Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
            The Jewish War Veterans was established.  It is the oldest veterans group in the United States.  It has an estimated 37,000 members.

1897
            Grover Cleveland served as President of the United States.  Adlai Stevenson was the Vice President.
            Alex Vester was interim pastor until a new pastor arrives.
            February 27, Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century.  Music critic Alan Blvth said "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty."  Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.  Marian was the eldest of the three Anderson children.  Her two sisters, Alice (later spelled Alyse) and Ethel, also became singers.  Ethel married James DePriest and their late son, James Anderson DePriest was a noted conductor. Before James Anderson DePriest died on February 8, 2013, he was conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Marian died in Portland, Oregon of congestive heart failure on April 8, 1993 at the home of her nephew James DePriest at the age of 96.
            March 4, William McKinley succeeds Grover Cleveland as President of the United States.  President McKinley ran on the Republican ticket.  Previously he served as Governor of Ohio.  Garret Hobart was his Vice president until November 21, 1899 when he died at the age of 55.
            April 3, Rev. Charles Asplund was called to be our seventh Senior Pastor.  He served from 1897 to 1902.
            April 21, A.W. Tozer was born on this date.  His full name was Aiden Wilson Tozer.  He was a Christian pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor, Bible conference speaker, and spiritual mentor.  He died on May 12, 1963.  Read some of Tozer's Quotes.
            July 17, The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle.
            September 1, The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America.
            October 2, Bud Abbott, American actor of Abbott and Costello was born.

1898
            William McKinley served as President of the United States.  Garret Hobart was the Vice President.
            Rev. Charles Asplund was our pastor.
            January 1, New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York.  The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island.
            February 15, Battleship Maine explodes in Havana's harbor, with crew of 266 killed.
            March 12, Battleship Oregon leaves San Francisco, around the tip of South America for Florida.
            April 13, The church Ladies' Mission Circle was organized to promote interest in home and foreign missions.
            April 25, United States declares war on Spain.
            May 22, Battleship Oregon arrives off Florida.  
            July 7, The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.
            September, Two men met in a YMCA hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin. Discovering each other to be a Christian, they held their evening devotions together.  This was the start of the International Organization called the Gideons.  Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible in over 94 languages in 194 countries of the world, most famously in hotel and motel rooms.  The organization was founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin, as a early American parachurch organization dedicated to Christian evangelism.  It began distributing free Bibles, the work is chiefly known for, in 1908, when the first Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.
            Nearly 79 million Gideon Scriptures were given out in 2009.  Close to 1.7 billion have been distributed since 1908.
            Gideons International is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
            November 29, C. S. Lewis, British author was born in Belfast, Ireland.  Clive Staples Lewis was known to his friends and family as "Jack," was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist.  He was known for both his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy and his nonfiction, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles and The Problem of Pain.  He died on November 22, 1963 at the age of 64 in Oxford, England.
            December 10, The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War.
            December 17, The Oregon Historical Society was organized on this date. 
            A separate conference in Oregon that our church was a member of was established.  The conference name was then the Oregon Swedish Conference.
            Sellwood annexed to Portland.
            Astoria's railroad completed.
           
1899
            William McKinley served as President of the United States.  Garret Hobart was the Vice President.   
            Rev. Charles Asplund was our pastor.
            March 2, Mount Rainier National Park was established.
            November 21, Garret Hobart, the Vice President of the United States died.  The office of Vice President was vacant until March 4, 1901
            December 22, Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist died.  He was born in 1837.
            Rev. G. A. Osbrink became the first Oregon Conference Missionary.
            E. Henry Wemme owns the first and only automobile in Portland.  It was a Stanley Steamer.
            The music to "Finlandia" was written by Jean Sibelius and was used for the music to several hymns including, "Be Still My Soul".  See 1752
            Gideons International was founded this year.  Read a document - Who Are the Gideons?

1900
            William McKinley served as President of the United States.   
            Rev. Charles Asplund was our pastor.
            January 3, The United States Census estimated the country's population was 70 million.
            February 14, Pastor Nicholas Hayland, our 2nd pastor and 1st graduate of John Edgren's Theological Seminary, (Bethel) passed away, in Tacoma, Washington.
            April 30, Hawaii becomes an official U.S.Territory.
            November 6, U.S. presidential election, incumbent William McKinley is reelected by defeating Democrat challenger William Jennings Bryan.
            Population in Portland - 90,426.
            1900-1914, 14 million immigrants pass through the US customs inspection station at Ellis Island in New York City.
            The Baptist General Conference is incorporated in Illinois.

1901
            William McKinley served as President of the United States.
            Rev. Charles Asplund was our pastor.
            January 1, The world celebrates the beginning of the 20th century.
            March 4, United States President William McKinley begins his 2nd term.  Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
            April 25, New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates.  At first, plates were not government issued in most jurisdictions and motorists were obliged to make their own. 
            August 29,  Olaus Okerson, died in McMinnville, Oregon.
            September 2,  U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
            September 6, American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.  President McKinley dies 8 days later (2:15 am on September 14.)
            September 14, Theodore Roosevelt succeeds William McKinley as the 26th President of the United States.  Roosevelt belonged to the Republican Party.
            December 10, The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
            December 5, Walt Disney, American animator and film producer was born.

1902
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  President Roosevelt served without a Vice President until the election in 1905.
            Rev. Charles Asplund was our pastor.  After Rev. Asplund resigned, Uno M. Brauer and Gordon Johnson served as an interim pastors until a new senior pastor became available.  
            January 1, The first college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
            January 16, Eric Liddell, a Scottish runner was born. He was often called the "Flying Scotsman" because of his speed in track and his game of rugby.  He was born in Tianjin in North China, the second son of the Rev. and Mrs. James Liddell, who were Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society.  He represented Scotland in the 1924 Olympics which, were hosted by the city of Paris.  A devout Christian, Liddell refused to run in a heat held on Sunday and was forced to withdraw from the 100-meters race, his best event.  He died on February 21, 1945 in the Weihsien Internment Camp, China.  The movie "Chariots of Fire," portrayed Liddell's life.
            February 4, Charles Lindbergh, American Aviator was born.  He died in 1974.
            February 24, Gladys Aylward was born.  She was the evangelical Christian missionary to China whose story was told in the book "The Small Woman" by Alan Burgess, published in 1957.  In 1958, the story was made into the Hollywood film, "The In of the Sixth Happiness", starring Ingrid Bergman.  Miss Aylward was born of a working-class family in Edmonton, London.  Although she became a domestic worker at an early age, she always had an ambition to go overseas as a missionary, and studied with great determination in order to be fitted to the role, only to be turned down because her academic background was inadequate and the missionary training school to which she applied was convinced that it was not possible to learn the language at her age.  Her determination was such that, in 1930, she spent her life savings on a passage to Yuncheng, Scanxi Province, China.  The perilous trip took her across Siberia. Read a condensed story about Miss Aylward.  Miss Aylward died on January 3, 1970 in Taiwan at the age of 67.
            May 22, President Theodore Roosevelt designated Crater Lake a National Park.
            May 27, Peter Marshall was born on this day.  He was born a poor Scottish immigrant who became Chaplain of the United States Senate.  He died on January 26, 1949 of a sudden heart attack.  A movie was made of his life called "A Man Called Peter."
            August 22, Theodore Rosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile when he rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
            October, Rev. J. A. Huggert became our eighth senior pastor.
            Rev. Gustaf Johnson succeeds Rev. Osbrink as missionary.
            The Oregon Journal newspaper started in Portland.
            The building, which houses the current Cairo Museum was built and inaugurated.  The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history.  It houses the world's largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, and many treasures of King Tutankhamen.
            Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing  stab wound in a young boy's heart.  The surgery occurred in Montgomery, Alabama.
 
1903
    Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.
            Rev. J. A. Huggert was our pastor.
            February 15, Morris and Rose Mitchom introduce the first teddy bear in America.
            April 19, Eliot Ness, American treasury agent was born on this day.  He died in 1957.
            May 2, Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician was born on this day.  He died in 1998.
            May 3, Bing Crosby, American singer and actor was born on this day.  He died in 1977.
            May 29, Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor was born on this day.  He died in the year 2003.
           June 16, The Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on this date.
            June 19, Lou Gehrig, American base ball player was born on this day.  He died in 1941.
            June 22, John Dillinger, American Bank robber was born on this day.  He died in 1934.
            July 23, Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A
            July 31, An armless swimmer, (Professor Clarence Lutz) swam across the Willamette River near the Morrison Bridge.  People were lined up on the Morrison Bridge to watch him when the part of the bridge gave way and tumbled people onto the boat houses below. There were many injuries and 3 died.
            September 15, Roy Acuff, American country musician was born on this day.  He died in 1992.
            October 1, The first modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates against Boston Americans of the American League.  Boston won 5 games to 3.  Boston won the last 4 games.
            October 30, William Thomas Cummings was born.  He was a Maryknoll mission priest and U.S. Military Chaplain, recognized by Maryknoll as a martyr of the Philippines, one of the people to whom the quotation "There are no atheists in foxholes"  has been attributed.  It was probably said during the Battle of Bataan in 1942, which was one of the military actions in which he served.  He was Ordained on June 16, 1928, Father Cummings was sent to Manila to teach in 1940, after working in San Francisco for ten years.  On December 10, 1941, he was serving at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila when that city came under attack, and is reported to have worked tirelessly.  This was the first of many such episodes that made Father Cummings a legend in his own time.  He was known for his openness to helping soldiers of all faiths.  Father Cummings was taken prisoner with the men he was serving, continued to minister to them, and died a prisoner aboard ship on January 18, 1945.
            November 4, Watchman Nee was born in Swatow, China.  During his 30 years of ministry, beginning in 1922, Nee traveled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and holding Christian conferences and trainings in Shanghia.  In 1952, he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death on May 30,1972 in Anhwei province, China.
            November 18, The Panama Canal Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
            December 17, Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.
            The first box of Crayola crayons were made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.

1904
    Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.
            Rev. J. A. Huggert was our pastor.
            January 2, James Longstreet, Confederate Civil War General died today.  He was born in 1821.
            February 29, Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader was born today. He died in 1957.
            March 1, Glenn Miller, American bandleader was born on this day.  He died in 1944.
            March 2, Dr. Seuss, American children's arthor; "The Cat in the Hat," was born on this day.  He died in 1991.
            May 4, U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
            May 5, Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
            July 1, The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis Missouri, as part of the World's Fair.
            July 6, Erik Wickberg, General of the Salvation Army was born today.  He died in 1996.
            July 21, The Trans-Siberian railway is completed.
             September 26, Axel Anderson and Carl V. Anderson were baptized.
            October 27, The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.  In March 1900, ground was broken in Manhattan for an electric-powered -US subway.  Twelve thousand men worked to build the subway for privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) using the cut and cover method: rather than drilling and tunneling deep beneath the city, a trench was cut to accommodate a typically 55-foot wide and 15-foot high tunnel, the rails were laid and stations built, the finished work was enclosed in steel beams, and a shallow layer of fill and paving was placed over the trench.  When the subway opened, 150,000 people paid a nickel each to ride.  When the system was completed, it was the fastest city transportation system in the world.
             November 8, U.S. Presidential Election.  Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
            November 24, The first successful caterpillar track is made (it later revolutionizes construction vehicles and land warfare.
            December 27, The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.
            December 31,  The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

1905
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.
            Rev. J. A. Huggert was our pastor.
            February 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia, German Empire (now Wroclaw, Poland).  He died on April 1945 at the age of 39 at the Flossenburg concentration camp, Nazi Germany.  He was a German pastor, theologian, spy, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church.  His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has become a modern classic.  Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.   He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.
            March 4, President Theodore Roosevelt was elected a second term as President of the United States.  Charles W Fairbanks was elected Vice President.  Fairbanks, Alaska was named after him.
            April 12, the 12th avenue church property was sold.  Services were held in The German Methodist church from April to September.
            May 30, Oaks Park in SE Portland opened.  It is one of the oldest amusement parks in the country.
            June 1, President Theodore Roosevelt sent a telegraph from Washington declaring the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition open.  Portland hosted the Lewis & Clark Exposition which ran for 137 days and was held at Guilds Lake.  Two million people saw the exhibits.  See picture of the original Forestry Building.  See the year 1964
            Late Summer, Rev. Huggert had to resign the pastorate at our church because of ill health.
            September 17,  a new building, The First Swedish Baptist Church at N.W. Fifteenth and Hoyt was dedicated.
            "Be Thou My Vision", the words written in Ancient Irish, were translated to English by Mary Elizabeth Byrne.
            "His Eye is on the Sparrow", the words written by Civilla D. Martin.
            "In the Sweet By and By", the words and music written by Charles D. Tindley.
            Bethel Academy opens in Elim Baptist Church in Minneapolis with Arvid Gordh as principal.   

1906
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Charles Fairbanks served as Vice President.
            January 1, Eric Scherstrom took over the pastorate a our church.
            February 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on this day.  He was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian.  He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing church.  His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office') to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943, and his subsequent execution by hanging on April 9, 1945, at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender and the wars end.   His view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential. 
            March 6, Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer was born on this day.  He died in the year1978.
            April 18, An estimated magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000-300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
            June 7, The RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow.  It is the world's largest ship.
            August 22, The first Victor Victrola, a phonographic record player, is manufactured.
            October 25, The Peter Iredale, a four-masted steel sailing vessel en route to the Columbia River, ran aground on the sand north of Fort Steven's Campground on the Oregon Coast. The wreckage is still visible, making it a popular tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Pacific.  The ship was sailing from Salina Cruz, Mexico, on or about September 26, 1906, and was bound for Portland, Oregon with 1,000 tons of ballast and a crew of 27, including two stowaways. 
            November 3, SOS becomes an international distress signal.
            Rev. Carl Axel Boberg succeeds Rev. Gustaf Johnson as Oregon Missionary.
            Mr. and Mrs. Lundberg were the custodians at the 15th and Hoyt church.
            Theodore Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for peace.

1907
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Charles Fairbanks served as Vice President.
            Eric Scherstrom was our pastor.
            May 26, John Wayne, American actor was born on this day.  John, known as "Duke" died in 1979.
            May 30,  See the Announcement for the Yearly Banquet of the Sunday School 
            June 5, The Church at Warren was organized.
            July 16, Orville Redenbacher, American botanist and popcorn businessman was born on this day.  Mr. Redenbacher died in 1995.
            June 22, Barney Oldfield broke the world's circular track record at Irvington Park.  He was the world's greatest automobile racing driver at the time.
            September 29, Gene Autry, American actor, singer and business man was born on this day.  Mr. Autry died in 1998.
            The first Rose Festival was held in Portland.  An electrical parade was a sparkling feature of the first festival and was described as the most lavish spectacle of its kind on the continent.
            A.G. Sandblom came to the west coast as a missionary and continued until September, 1912.
            Rev. A. G. Sandblom succeeds Rev. Boberg as Oregon Missionary.

1908
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Charles Fairbanks served as Vice President.
            Eric Scherstrom was our pastor.
            January 12, A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffle Tower for the first time.
            January 26, John A. Edgren, founder of Bethel Theological Seminary and the denominational press, passed away in Oakland, California.  He was besides being the founder served for sixteen years as director of the Seminary when it was in Morgan Park, Illinois.  A true man.  A loyal naval officer of the Civil War.  An earnest student and teacher.  A loving husband and father.  Faithful pastor and preacher,  An eminent theologian and author.  And above all a true and sincere Christian.   Taken from "Seventy-Five Years" - Bethel Theological Seminary pg 14.  See 1839
            January 24, Robert Baden Powell begins the Boy Scout movement in England, with the publication of the first installment of Mr. Powell's' book Scouting for Boys.
            March 22, Louis L’Amour was born in Jamestown, North Dakota.  He eventually wrote 89 novels, mostly western, over 250 short stories, and sold more than 320 million copies of his work. By the 1970's his writings were translated into over 20 languages.  Every one of his works is in print.  L'Amour died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988, at his home in Los Angeles.
            April 21, Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.
            April 28, Oskar Schindler was born in Svitavy, Czech Republic.  He was an ethnic German industrialist, German spy, and member of the Nazi Party was credited with the saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in occupied Poland and the Czech Republic.  He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark, and the subsequent 1993 film Schindler's List, which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, and dedication in order to save the lives of his Jewish employees.  He was named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israel Government in 1963.  He died on October 9, 1974 in Hildesheim, Germany.  He is buried in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The only former member of the Nazi party to be honored this way.  He and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israel government in 1993.
            May 10, ~ Three years after her mother's death, Anna Jarvis held a memorial ceremony to honor her mother and all mothers at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church.  She worked really hard to get Mother's Day established Internationally.  On May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day "as a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers or our country."
            July 4, See Photo of Young People's Picnic.
            July 5, ~ The first known celebration of Father's day was held in Fairmont, West Virginia, where it was commemorated at William Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, known as Central United Methodist Church, Grace Golden Clatyon is believe to have suggested it to her pastor after a deadly explosion in nearby Monongah on December 6, 1907, killing 367 men.  In 1924, President Coolidge recommended that Father's Day become a national holiday.  President Johnson designated the third Sunday of June to be Father's Day in 1966,  It was not until 1972 that President Nixon instituted Father's Day as a national observance.
            October 1, Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model T.
            December 31, The Manhattan Bridge opens in New York City.
            Spokane Portland and Seattle Railroad completed to Portland.

       
1909
            Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Charles Fairbanks served as Vice President.
            Eric Scherstrom was our pastor.
            January 1, Barry Goldwater, American politician was born on this date.  He died in 1998.
            February 1, George Beverly Shea, was born on this date in Winchester, Ontario, Canada. George was the fourth of eight children born to  Rev. Adam Joseph Shea, who was pastor of a Wesleyan Methodist Church--now Wesleyan Church--and his wife Maude Mary Theodora (Whitney) Shea.  George was a Canadian-born American gospel singer and hymn composer.  He was often described as "America's beloved Gospel singer" and was considered "the first international singing 'star' of the gospel world," as a consequence of his solos at Billy Graham Crusades and his exposure on radio, records, and television.  Shea himself has said that he became a Christian at the age of five or six, but made a re-dedication th Christ when he was 18:
        There were times when I needed to rededicate my live to the Lord Jesus.  When I was 18, my dad was pastoring a church in Ottawa, and I was feeling not too spiritual.   The church has having a "special effort," as they called it, for a week.  I remember that on Friday night Dad came down from the pulpit and tenderly placed his hand on my shoulder.  He whispered, "I think tonight might be the night, son, when you come back to the Lord."  What ever Dad did or said, I listened to him and respected him.  And, yes, that was the Night!  George accepted Christ again as his Savior at the Sunnyside Wesleyan Methodist Church in Ottawa, Canada.   George Beverly Shea died on April 16, 2013 at the age of 104.
            February 17, Geronimo, Apache Leader died on this date.  He was born in 1829.
            February 24, The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
            March 4, William Howard Taft succeeds Theodore Roosevelt as 27th President of the United States.  James Sherman was elected Vice President.
            March 31, Construction begins on the RMS Titanic at Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast, Ireland.
            April 1, Robert Preston Taylor was born.  He was a military officer (Major General) who served as the 3rd Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force.  A graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, he notably served as a chaplain during World War II and was a Prisoner of War and a survivor of the Bataan Death March,  He began his tenure as chief of chaplains.  He died on February 1, 1997 at the age of 87.
            June 14, Burl Ives was born on this date.  He was an American actor, writer and folk music singer.  As an actor, Ive's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures.was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures.  He died on April 14, 1995 in Anacortes, Washington at the age of 85.  .
            August 10, Leo Fender, American guitar inventor and manufacturer was born on this date. He died on March 21, 1991.
            August 19, Powell Valley (Haley) church was organized.
            September 28, Al Capp, American cartoonist was born on this date.  He died in 1979.
            November 11, The U.S. Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1910
    William Howard Taft served as President of the United States.  James Sherman served as Vice President.
            Eric Scherstrom was our pastor
            March 8, French aviatrix, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman in the world to be issued a pilot's license.
            April 20, Halley's Comet was visible from Earth.
            May 18, The earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
            May 31, The Union of South Africa is created.
            August 26, Mother Teresa was born on this day.  She died on September 5, 1997.
            October 1, Pastor Eric Scherstorm resigned the pastorate or our church.
            October 14, John Wooden was born in Hall, Indiana.  He was an American basketball player and coach.  Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood". he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period --- seven in a row --- as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat.  Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games.  He was named national coach of the year six times.  He was one of the most revered coaches and was beloved by his former players, among the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.  Wooden was renowned for his short, simple inspirational messages to he players, including his "Pyramid of Success".  These often were directed at how to be a success in life as well as in basketball.  He died on June 4, 2010 at the age of 99 in Los Angels, California.  One of his famous quotes was, "Talent is God given; be humble.  Fame is man given; be thankful.  Conceit is self given; be careful."

 
            Erick Scherstrom was our 9th Senior Pastor.
            Joe Lafayette Meek was born sometime during this year in Washington County, Virginia, near the Cumberland Gap.  Mr. Meek was an earlier pioneer in Oregon History.  He died on June 20, 1975 in Hillsboro, Oregon.
            Philip Forsander left for Morgan Park Seminary, to become a Pastor and Naval Chaplain.
            The Sewing Circle and Mission Circle were combined.
            In the spring, the blind evangelist, A J Freeman, and his daughter, Ester, held meetings which were used of God in the salvation of many souls.
            The population of Portland reaches 207,214.

1911
            William Howard Taft served as President of the United States.  James Sherman served as Vice President.
            Rev. Fredrick Linden was our 10th Senior Pastor.
            January 18, Eugene B. Ely flew a Curtiss pusher aircraft and landed on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania, an armored cruiser stationed in San Francisco harbor, making the first time an aircrafts lands on a ship.  The ship was anchored in San Francisco Bay.  Ely landed on a platform constructed on her afterdeck using the first ever tailhook system, opening the era of naval aviation and aircraft carriers.  
            February 6, Ronald Regan, actor and 40th President of the United States was born on this day.  He died in 2004.
            March 24, Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist was born on this day.  He died in 2006.
            March,  Louis Chevrolet and a group of men working in a loft above a small shop on Grand Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, began assembling the first Chevrolet car.  See November 3, of this year.
            May 30, The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run.  The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp.'
            June 15, Wilbert Awdry was born in Ampfield, Hampshire  England.   He was an English Anglican cleric, railway enthusiast and children's author.  Better known as the Reverend W. Awdry.  He was the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine.   He was the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, the central figure in his acclaimed Railway Series.  Wilbert died on March 21, 1997 Redborough, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England at the age of 85.
            August 6, Lucille Ball, American actress (I Love Lucy) was born on this day.  She died in 1989.
            November 3, Louis Chevrolet co founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company with William C. Durant.   Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T.
            November 5, Roy Rogers, American cowboy singer and actor was born on this day.  He died in 1998.
            The Hymn, "Rise Up O Men of God," was written by William P. Merrill.

1912
            William Howard Taft served as President of the United States.  James Sherman served as Vice President.
            Fredrick Linden was our pastor.
            January 1, The Republic of China, (the Island of Tawian) is established.  Not to be confused with mainland China, known as the People's Republic of China.
            January 6, New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
            January 28, The church at Cherry Grove was organized.
            February 14, Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
            March 1, Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.  Mr. Berry jumped from a Benoit pusher biplane.
            March 6, The first sale of Oreo Cookie was made from the National Biscuit Company to a grocer in Hoboken named S. C. Thuesen.  From an article from the New York Times Pg. B1, Tuesday, February 28, 2012.
            March 12, The Girl Scouts of the USA are founded.
            April 15, The "unsinkable" ocean liner Titanic sinks on maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg; over 1,500 drown.  There were 706 survivors.
            April 20, Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, opens.
            May 5 - July 27, Stockholm, Sweden was host for the Summer Olympic Games.  At, 25, The United States won the most gold medals, while at 65, Sweden won the most medals over all.  American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and newly created decathlon.  He was disqualified after the fact but in 1982 was reinstated.  King Gustav of Sweden said, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world," to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King."
            July 17, Art Linkletter was born on this day.  He was a Canadian-American radio and television personality and the former host of two long-running US television shows:  "House Party," which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and "People Are Funny," on NBC radio-TV for 19 years.  Mr. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on "House Party" and "Kids Say the Darndest Things," which led to a successful series of books quoting children. He died on May 26, 2010.
            August 9, On this date the Steel bridge in Portland over the Willamette River was open to automobile traffic.  It opened to rail traffic earlier in July.  The bridge was built to replace the aging original bridge built in 1888, which was a double-deck swing-span bridge.  The new bridge assumed the same name as its predecessor.
            September, Rev. August Olson succeeds Rev. Sandblom as Oregon Missionary.
            September 30, James Sherman, Vice President of the United States died in his home of a kidney disease.  The office of Vice President was left vacant until the next election in 1913.
            December,  Mr. and Mrs. John Milton went to Cherry Grove from Portland and bought a lot on First Avenue to build a hotel.  It was rushed to completion and ready for use in late January the following year. 
            Reed College opens at S.W. Eleventh and Jefferson.  The college was established in 1908.
            The Haley church was dedicated.  John Johnson was the first pastor from 1907-1920.
            The Theological Seminary  which was a department of the Divinity School at The University of Chicago terminated its support of Bethel Seminary.
            The hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" was composed by Rev. George Bennard 
            The first Swedish Baptist Church in Oregon, outside of Portland, was established in Cherry Grove.
            A. J. Wingblade succeeds Arvid Gordh as principal of Bethel Acadamy.

1913
            William Howard Taft served as President of the United States.
            Fredrick Linden was our pastor.
            February 1, New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.
            February 3, The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.
            March 4, Woodrow Wilson was elected 28th President of the United States.  He belonged to the Democratic Party.  Previously he was Governor of New Jersey.  Thomas R. Marshall was elected Vice President.   
            March 13, David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, was born in Scotland.
            April 22, The Broadway Bridge was open for traffic.
            July 18, Red Skelton, American comedian was born on this day.  He died in 1997.
            December 23, The Federal Reserve is created by Woodrow Wilson.
            Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th U.S. President.
            Henry Ford develops the first moving assembly line.
            Seventh Street on Portland's West side renamed Broadway.

1914
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Fredrick Linden was our pastor.
            January 6, Danny Thomas, American singer, actor, and comedian was born this day.  He died in the year 1991.
            February 12, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
            March 2, Captain G. W. Schroeder, in a sense the first Swedish Baptist, died in Brooklyn, New York.  He was nearly 93 years of age.
            May 13, Joe Louis, American boxer was born on this day.  He did in 1981.
            May 14, Woodrow Wilson signs a Mother's Day proclamation.
            May 29, The ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,012 lives are lost.
            June 28, The First World War started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand the Inspector of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and his wife, Sophie von Chotkovato during a parade in Sarajevo.
            July 11, Baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.
            August 15, The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the steamship U.S.S. Ancon.
            August 15, The first modern red and green traffic lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
            September 13, W.Ian Thomas was born in London, England. He joined the British Army in World War II,  He was decorated with the D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order) and the T.D. (Territorial Decoration).  When the Germans surrendered, Major W. Ian Thomas went and took the flag of surrender.  After his service in the British Army, Major Thomas was probably best known as a Bible teacher, author and founder of both Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers (based at Capernwray Hall, England) and subsequently Torchbearers International (based in the USA).  He died at the just before his 94th birthday on August 1, 2007 in Estes Park, Colorado, USA.   ".....that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection......"  Philippians 3:10
            October 7, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. marries Rose Fitzgerald in Boston.
            October 8, Robert Pierce was born.  He was an American Baptist minister and relief worker.  He is best known as the founder of the international charity organizations, World Vision International in 1950 and Samaritans Purse in 1970/  He died on November 6, 1978 in Arcadia, California.
            November 16, A year after being created by passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.
            November 25, Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player was born on this day.  He died in 1999.
            The Portland Central Library moves to S.W. Tenth and Yamhill.
            Bethel Seminary moved from Chicago, to a new building on Snelling Avenue Campus in St. Paul merging with Academy as "Bethel Academy and Theological Seminary," the beginning of a school work owned and operated by the Baptist General Conference.  G. Arvid Hagstrom was elected president of the combined two schools.

1915
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Fredrick Linden was our pastor.
            January 25, Alexander Graham Bell made the first transcontinental phone call from Lower Manhattan to Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco.
            January 12, The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
            January 12, The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.
            January 28, An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.
            May 6, Babe Ruth hits his firs career home run off of Jack Warhop who was a pitcher for the New York Highlanders/New York Yankees.
             May 7--British ocean liner Lusitania sunk by German submarine's torpedo, 1,198 perish.
            July 28, The United States occupation of Haiti begins.
            September 7, Former cartoonist John B. Grulle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
            December 12, Frank Sinatra, American entertainer was born on this day.  "Ole Blue Eyes" died in the year 1998.
            Emanuel Hospital builds first building on Stanton Street.
            Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies (4-1) in the World Series.
            The Ford Motor Company opened an assembly plant at 2505 SE 11th Ave in Portland.  It was this year that Ford built its millionth car.
        

1916
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Axel Tjernlund served as Interim Pastor. 
            January 1, read the Församlings Posten (Assembly News).  Our church news letter - written in Swedish.
            April, The light switch is invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg.
            October 4,  Rev. Gideon Sjolander accepted the call to be our pastor.  He was our 12th senior pastor.
            A dedication of the opening of the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway was held at Multnomah Falls.
            Bethel Kvinnoforbund (women's federation) is organized under the leadership of Mrs. Olaf Bodien.   

1917
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            January 26, Louis Zamperini was born in Olean, New York.  Louis started out as a boy bigger kids picked on mainly because he only spoke Italian when he was growing up.  He took up boxing and became very good at it.  He became an Olympic runner and qualified for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.  He joined the Army Air Forces  and earned a commission of 2nd Lieutenant.  He was a bombardier in a B-24 Liberator.  During a search mission for a missing plane, the plane they were in crashed at sea.  The 2 remaining airman who survived were adrift at sea for 47 days until captured by the Japanese Navy.  He was sent to various prison camps and ended up at one in Northern Japan and remained there until the war ended.  He was given a hero's welcome when he returned to his home town.  He later married Cynthia Applewhite in 1946.  She became a born-again Christian while attending a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles.  She finally talked Louie into going to hear Billy and he ended up accepting Christ as his personal Savior.  Louie remembered the constant prayers while drifting in the Pacific Ocean for that length of time.  He became a Christian inspirational speaker and ended up going back to Japan and sharing The Gospel to many of his captors.  He died on July 2, 2014 in Los Angeles at the age of 97.  Laura Hillenbrand wrote a story of Louie's life called "Unbroken."
            February 14, The Interstate Bridge to Vancouver is opened to traffic.
            April 2, President Woodrow Wilson appeared before The Congress of the United States and asked them to declare war on Germany.
            April 6, The United States entered the First World War.
            May 8,  Ken N. Taylor was born in Portland, Oregon.  His father was a Presbyterian minister.  He graduated from Beaverton High School in 1934 and enrolled in Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.  He graduated from Wheaton in 1938.  He was an American publisher and author, better known as the creator of the Living Bible and the founder of Tyndale House, a Christian publishing company.
            May 29, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born.  He was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.  He was the first president born in the 20th century.  He died on November 22, 1963.
            July 30, The Steel Bridge burned.  It was 3 years old.
            Shipbuilding increases 35%
            As roads and railways replaced the rivers as the major means of transportation, the last overnight passenger sternwheeler operating on the Columbia River is removed from service.

1918
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            February 12, Eric Sandell, teacher at Bethel Theological Seminary for 22 years, passed away.
            March 11,  The first case of the Great Influenza Epidemic was reported in Fort Riley, Kansas.  The disease would kill 20 million people worldwide.
            May 8,  John Morrison Birch was born on this day in Landour, Uttarakhand, India.  He was an American military intelligence officer and a Baptist missionary in World War II who was shot by armed supporters of the communist Party of China.  Some politically conservative groups in the United States consider him to be a martyr and the first victim of the Cold War.  The John Birch Society, an American right-wing conservative organization formed 13 years after his death is named in his honor.  He died on August 25, 1945 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
            October ~ The Spanish Flu hit Portland,Oregon.  The first death was a discharged soldier, Arthur Zik.  School, churches, streetcars were closed, no sneezing allowed.  From an article in the April 2020 issue of the NW Examiner, a local NW newspaper.
            November 7, Billy Graham was born on a farm in North Carolina.  He is an American evangelical Christian evangelist, who rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television.  Graham has been spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents and has met with 12, dating back to Harry S. Truman,  He has repeatedly been on Gallup's most admired man and woman poll, and is listed at number seven for the 20th century (taken in 1999).  He was ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention.  He has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other person in history.  On August 13, 1943, he married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell.  A saying he is noted for is, "The Bible says........"  This year, 2012, he will be 94 years old.
            November 11, at 11:00 PM, (11-11-11) The First World War ended.  The Armistice was signed in the "Forest of Compiegne," in France.  Also see this  World War 1 Website.
            Four immense steel plants are now building ships.  See Web page about the Portland Shipyards.

1919
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            January, Temple Baptist Church celebrated its 35th anniversary.
            June 20, Roy Allen open a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California, using a formula he had purchased from a pharmacist.   In 1920, Allen became partners with Frank Wright and the two combined their initials and called their product A&W Root Beer.
            The Young People's Society suggested that the church start a building fund. This matter was later taken up.  To see excerpts from the Business Meeting minutes for February 4, 1919,  Click Here.
            Bishop Festo Kivengere was born sometime during this year.  He was a Ugandan Anglican-Christian leader referred to by many as "the Billy Graham of Africa."  He played a huge role in a Christian revival in southwestern Uganda, but had to flee in 1973 to neighboring Kenya in fear for his life after speaking out against Idi Amin's tyrannical behavior.  Kivengere had been made a bishop of Kigezi and was among several bishops summoned to Amin's quarters.  Angry mobs called for their deaths.  Eventually, all were permitted to leave but one, the archbishop, Janani Luwum.  The others waited for Luwum to join them but he never came out.  The next day the government announced that Luwum had died in an automobile accident.  Four days later, despite government threats, 45,000 Ugandans gathered in the Anglican cathedral in Kampala for a memorial service honoring their fallen leader.  Kivengere did not attend the service.  Urged to flee by friends who said, "One dead bishop is enough,' he and his wife that night drove as far as their vehicle could take them and with the help of local church people in the hills they walked until the next morning brought them to safely across the border in Rwanda.  Also see another link about Bishop Festo.

1920
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            January, the Oregon Conference was held at this church and a large number of delegates made a trip to Warren, Oregon, to dedicate the church there.
            July, Pastor Sjolander visits Sweden.
            Rev. Emanuel Björkquist becomes Interim Pastor while Pastor Sjolander was away from the pulpit. 
            July, Pastor Axel Tjernlund went to be with the Lord.
            August 3, Pastor Sjolander was granted 9 months leave of absence to visit Sweden.
            August 18, The Nineteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the required number of states.
            August 26, Fourteen years after the death of Susan B. Anthony, women were given the right to vote in the United States by the Nineteenth amendment to the Constitution.
            October The Spanish Flu hit Portland.  The first death was a discharged soldier, Arthur Zik.  School, churches, streetcars were closed, no sneezing allowed.  From an article in the April 2020 issue of the NW Examiner, a local NW newspaper.
            October 31, the Deacon Board arranged a meeting to honor John Palmblad on his eightieth birthday.  Mr. Palmblad gave the church of $50.00 for the new church lot that the church expected to buy.  Reported by O.S. Rydman on November 20.
            Rev. Emanuel Bjorkquist succeeds Rev. Sandblom as Oregon Missionary.
            Population of Portland reached 258,288.
            Bethel Seminary's name became "Bethel Institute."
            See a photo of the church choir.
            Bethel Academy and Theological Seminary becomes the Bethel Institute.

1921
            Woodrow Wilson served as President of the United States.  Thomas Marshall served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            Rev. Emanuel Björkquist becomes Interim Pastor while Pastor Sjolander was away from the pulpit.
            January, the church began to have a service once a month in English, for the benefit of those not understanding Swedish.  Gradually the shift to English services became a reality as the church's responsibility to minister to the neighborhood as well as the Swedish population was recognized.
            March 4, Warren G. Harding was elected the 29th President of the United States.  He ran on the Republican Ticket.  Previously he was the U. S. Senator from Ohio.  Calvin Coolidge served as his Vice President.
            April 21, John Stott (John Robert Walmsley Stott) was born in London, England.  He was an English Christian leader and Anglican cleric who was noted as a leader of the worldwide Evangelical movement.  He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974.  In 2005, Time magazine ranked Storr among thee 100 most influential people in the world.  He died on July 27, 2011 in Lingfield, Surrey, England at the age of 90.
            September 6, The Peace Arch at the border of Canada and The United States near Blaine, Washington. and Surrey, British Columbia  was dedicated.
            September 13, The White Castle Restaurant chain opened in Wichita, Kansas.  It was the first of its kind on the U.S.
            October 19, American evangelist William R. "Bill" Bright was born on this day.  He was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, wrote the Four Spiritual Laws in 1952 and produced the Jesus film in 1979. He died on July 19, 2003.
            November 15, the church voted to purchase property at the east end of the Broadway Bridge near Interstate Ave on Larrabee Street.  Later the Interstate property was sold.
            November 27, The first program of radio entertainment ever put on the air in Portland was broadcast by the Portland Telegram on this date, from its offices in the Pittock block, operation under a temporary government permit.  The Telegram's Station's call letters were KEX, 239.9Meters, 1250 Kilocycles.
            Bethel celebrates it's 50th anniversary.

1922
            Warren G. Harding served as President of the United States.  Calvin Coolidge served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            February 5, DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of Reader's Digest.
            February 8, President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
            March 25, KGW opens the first radio broadcasting station and makes its first broadcast on this date.
            May 5, Construction begins on Yankee Stadium.
            May 30, The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated.
            November 4, Archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.
            November 26, Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, creater of Peanuts was born on this day.  Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible, Luke 2:8-14 to explain "What Christmas is all about."  In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side.  He died on February 12, 2000.
            December 12, Arthur Ray Hawkins was born in Zavalla, Texas.  He was the US Navy's 10th leading ace with 14 aerial victories to his credit.
            See photo of Pastor Sjolander's Bible Class.
            Bethel Seminary adds the Bible and Missionary Training School for Laity.
           Arvid Gordh succeeds Carl Gustaf Lagergren as seminary dean.

1923
             Warren G. Harding served as President of the United States.  Calvin Coolidge served as Vice President.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.
            June, The Young People's Society celebrated their 35th anniversary.  The church was then called "First Swedish Baptist Church."  See a photo taken on the front steps of the the church at SW 15th and Hoyt Streets.
            August 2, President Harding died in San Francisco of some condition.  Some doctors feel it was a heart attack.  He had been ill for some time.  Mrs. Harding died the next year on November 21.
            August 2, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the Presidency of the United States.  The Vice President office was vacant until the next national election.  Vice-President Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death.  He dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled.  His father, a notary public, administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 am on August went back to bed.  He returned to Washington the next day, and was sworn in again by Justice Adolph A. Hoehling, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to forestall the questionable authority of a notary public to administer the presidential oath.
            See a photo of "The Cheerful Helpers" Sunday School Class. 
            See a photo of  Sunday School Picnic, probably held on July 4th.
            See a photo of Men's "Berea" Sunday School Class.
            Thomas O. Chisholm wrote, "Great is Thy Faithfulness"  Return to 1866
             A.H. Johnson became the Missionary of Washington Swedish Baptist Conference
             July 23, President Harding drove the "Golden Spike" to signal the completion of the Fairbanks to Seward Alaska railroad.
             August 30, Nathanael "Nate" Saint was born.  He was an evangelical Christian missionary pilot to Ecuador who along with four others were killed on January 8, 1956, while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.  
 
1924
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.
            Rev. Gideon Sjolander was our pastor.            
            January 15, Pastor Sjolander resigns to accept a call to become the General Conference Missionary.
            January 21, Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear the way for his leadership of  The Soviet Union.
            April 1, Rev.  J. Alfred Erickson became Pastor.  He was our 13th senior pastor.
            April 5, Howard Hendricks was born in  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He is a longtime professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and speaker for Promise Keepers.  He has mentored many Christian leaders, including Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Joseph Stowell and David Jeremiah.  He has authored sixteen books, has ministered in over 80 countries, and he also served as chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys football team from 1976 to 1984.
            May 4, The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies are held in Paris, France. 
            May 10, J. Edgar Hover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
            June 12, George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States was born this day.
            November 1, Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize was born on this day.
            November 4, U.S. presidential election: Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Robert M. LaFollette, Sr. 
            November 24, Paul Carlson, an American physician and medical missionary who served in Wasolo, a town in what is now The Democratic Republic of the Congo was shot to death by Communist Insurgents.
            November 27, In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
            Ester Sabel joins the faculty as head of the Bible and Missionary Training School.

 1925
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.
            January 5, Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.  She was elected governor of the state of Wyoming.
            March 4, Calvin Coolidge was elected the 30th President of the United States and became the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.  Charles G. Dawes was elected as the 29th Vice President.
            May 12, Yogi Berra, American baseball player was born on this day.
            May 25, The Baraca Sunday School Class held their second annual banquet at Henry Thiele's Restaurant. See the menu and program.
            See notes from annual meeting concerning the new church at N.E. 7th and Clackamas by clicking here.
            October 13, Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham, England.  Her name was Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher Roberts.  She was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.  She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office.  A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.  As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.  She died on April 8, 2013 at the age of 87 in London, England.
            November 11, Jonathan Winters was born in Dayton, Ohio.  His legal name was Jonathan Harshman Winters III.  He was an American comedian, actor and artist.  Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label, starting in 1960, and has produced recordings every decade for over 50 years.  He has also appeared in hundreds of television show episodes/series and films combined, including eccentric characters in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the Wacky World of Jonathan Winters (1972-74), Mork and Mindy and Hee Haw.  He died on April 11, 20 in Montecito, California at the age of 87.
            November 26, Margaret Brunander (Steel) was baptized.
            November 28, The country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.  It later becomes the longest-running live music show.
            Adolph Hitler wrote volume one of the book Mein Kampf while in prison.
            Burma-Shave was introduced by the Burma-Vita company.  From 1925 to 1963, the Burma Shave sign series appeared on road sides in most of the contiguous United States.
            K.J. Karlson succeeds Arvid Gordh as seminary dean.

1926
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.  Charles G. Dawes served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.            
            January, property at Seventh and Clackamas was purchased.  Click the link to read about the history of the city block the church building sits on.
            January 17 ~ George Burns married Gracie Allen.
            March 6, The Building Committee recommended hiring a competent Architect to draw up plans for a new Church Building.
            April 3, Gus Grissom, American astronaut was born on this day.  Mr. Grissom died in 1967.
            April 21, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was born on this day.
            April 27, The Architect Walter Kelly presented plans for a building that would cost $50,000.  The plans were adopted.
            June 1, Andy Griffith, American actor of The Andy Griffith show was born on this day.
            June 10, Antoni Gaudi, Catalan architect died on this day.  He was born in 1852.
            September 1, Walter Kelly presented a sketch of the new church building.
            September19, ground breaking took place for the new building.
            October 4, See drawing of Front Elevation of new church building.
            November 11, Route 66 was established.  U.S. Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road or "The most famous road in the world."
            November 27, In Williamsburg, Virginia the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins.
            Aviation proponents proposed an airport for Portland on Swan Island, northwest of downtown Portland on the Willamette River.  The Port of Portland purchased 256 acres and construction began in 1926.  Although the airport wasn't completed until 1930, Charles Lindberg flew in and dedicated the new airfield in 1927.
            Fall, Multnomah Stadium, now known as PGE Park, opened.  Work started on the park in 1925.
            First bachelor of divinity degree is granted at Bethel.

1927
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.  Charles G. Dawes served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor. 
            March 6, Sunday afternoon, the cornerstone was set in place.
            May 20-21, Charles Lindberg makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, from New York to Paris in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.
            June 5, last service in the old building on Hoyt Street.
            June 12, dedication of the new church building.
                Click Here to see the Invitation to the Dedication Exercises.  
                Click Here to see the Program For Dedication.
            August 10,  work started on the carving of Mt. Rushmore.    
            October 21, Friday evening, dedication of the new pipe organ.  Pastor Erickson led in a dedication of the organ, followed by a recital performed by concert organist William Boone.  The organ was built by Teller-Kent Organ Company of Eric. Pennsylvania,  It had over 1100 electromagnets, with 25 miles of copper and silver wiring.  The organ contained 1,386 pipes, the largest pipe being 16 feet long.  The smallest pipe had openings the size of a led pencil.
            December 2, Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile. 
            December 27, Robert Noyce was born in Burlington, Iowa.  Mr. Noyce ws nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley," co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968.  He is also credited (along with Jack Kilby) with the realization of the first integrated circuit for microchip which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name.  He died on June 3, 1990 in Austin, Texas at the age of 62.
            Portland's first municipal airport opened on Swan Island.
            To see photos and text of the new church building on NE 7th and Clackamas, Click Here.

1928
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.  Charles G. Dawes served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.
            February 11, the II Olympic Winter Games opened in St. Moritz, Switerland.
            April 22, An earthquake in Corinth, Greece destroys 200,000 buildings.
            May 11, Brother Andrew or Andrew van der Bijl was born in Sint Pancras, Netherlands.   He was also known as the God Smuggler.  He was famous for his exploits smuggling Bibles to communist countries in the height of the Cold War, a feat that has earned him the nickname "God's Smuggler. Brother Andrew studied at the WEC (World Wide Evangelisation for Christ)  in Glasgow, Scotland.
            May 15, The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia commences operations.
            May 15, The animated short "Plane Crazy" is released by Disney Studios in Los Angeles, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  See the relatives of the Mickey Mouse family.
            May 26, Jantzen Beach on Hayden Island, opens with four swimming pools, The Big Dipper roller-coaster, Fun House, the Skooter, Merry Mixup, Merry-go-Round, the Promenade and The Golden Canopy Ballroom.
            June 18, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
            July 28, The 1928 Summer Olympics officially opens in Amsterdam.
            November 6, In the U.S. presidential election Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
            December 21, The U.S. Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hover Dam.
            The Ford Rogue Center was completed this year.  It was a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the Rouge River.  Construction began in 1917, and when completed this year became the largest integrated factory in the world. 

1929
            Calvin Coolidge served as President of the United States.  Charles G. Dawes served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.
            January 15, Martin Luther King Jr. was born.  He died on April 4, 1868.
            March 4, Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States.  He was a member of the Republican Party.  Previously he was Secretary of Commerce.  Charles Curtis was the Vice President.
            March 24, Palm Sunday--See a Bulletin from the Sunday Service at the White Temple (First Baptist Church)  Also see a lesson card from the White Temple Sunday School curriculum, dated 1915.
            June 12, Anne Frank was born.  Known for the diaries she kept about her experiences in the Second World War, Anne Frank is a figure about whom books have been written and films and documentaries produced.  The diary she kept of her years spent hiding from the Nazis in the rear of a building divided into front and back sections has been translated into fifty-five languages.  The house, where Anne Frank penned the diaries that were discovered after her death, is Amsterdam's most visited museum-house, with a long line of people waiting to get in at every hour of the day.  She died in early 1945, at the age 15, in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, in Nazi Germany.
            June 26-30, Swedish Baptist Temple was host the first time to the Swedish Baptist General Conference.  The Conference was celebrating their 50th year at Temple.  Click Here to view a copy of the conference program.  (Most of it is written in Swedish)
            August 24,  The Hebron massacre refers to the killing of sixty-seven or sixty-nine Jews on this day in Hebron, then part of Mandatory Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
            September 3, The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) peaks at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954.
            October 24, Black Thursday, the start of The Great Depression
            See the schedule for 1929 of Offices and Societies for the church.

1930
            Herbert Hoover served as President of the United States.  Charles Curtis served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.
            March 22, Pat Robertson was born on this day.  His full name is Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson.  He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law and Justice, the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Christian Coalition, Flying Hospital, International Family Entertainment Inc. Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, and Regent University.  He is the host of the 700 Club, a Christian Television program airing on channels throughout the United States and on CBN affiliates worldwide.  
            April 6, Hostess Twinkies are invented.
            August 9, Betty Boop premiers in the animated film "Dizzy Dishes."
            December 2, The Great depression:  U.S. President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
            The Oregon Swedish Baptist Conference merged with the Washington Conference to form the Columbia Baptist Conference.
             Rev. A. H. Johnson remained as Conference Missionary until 1935.
             Population of Portland now 301,815.

1931
            Herbert Hoover served as President of the United States.  Charles Curtis served as Vice President
            Rev. J. Alfred Erickson was our pastor.
            January 1, Due to hard times, the church stopped paying a salary to all workers and Rev. Erickson agreed to deduct $40.00 per month from salary for 5 months.
            February 20, California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge.
            March 3, The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
            May 1, Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
            May 19, David Ray Wilkerson was born on this day in Hammond, Indiana.  In 1953 he married Gwen Wilkerson.  He was a Christian evangelist, best known for his book "The Cross and the Switchblade."  He was the founder of the addiction recovery progam Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York of Evangelical Doctrine and Practice, in which more that 100 nationalities were represented.   On April 27, 2011 while driving east on US Route 175 in Texas, Wilkerson crossed into the westbound lane and collided head-on with a tractor trailer.  He was pronounced dead on the scene.  His wife Gwen was injured.  Although Gwen survived the accident she died July 5, 2012, from cancer.
            May 15, Construction of the St Johns Bridge was completed, and the bridge was opened to traffic on June 13, 1931.  Click here for Website and Info of Portland's bridges 
            May 30, Swedish Baptist Temple held a Conference Concert 8:00 PM on Saturday.  Click here to view the copy of the original program.
            October 16, Chuck Colson or Charles Wendell Colson was born.  He was a Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973, and later a noted Evangelical Christian leader and cultural commentator.  He died on April 21, 2012.
            Gertrude Gustafson was Temple's church historian.
            Early in this year, construction began on what is now known as Hoover Dam.  Originally was known as Bolder dam.  It opened in 1936, two years ahead of schedule.  
            Bethel Junior College begins with Walfred Danielson as dean.

1933
            Herbert Hoover served as President of the United States.  Charles Curtis served as Vice President
            Rev. Fredrik Linden was Interim Pastor.
            January 5, Work began on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay.  The bridge opened on May 27, 1937.
            January 30, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
            January 30, The Lone Ranger debuts on American radio.
            March 3, Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.
            March 4, U.S. President Herbert Hoover is succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, proclaims "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" in his inauguration speech.  FDR is sworn in by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes,  It is also the last time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on March 4.  John Nance Garner was the Vice President.  President Roosevelt was a Democrat and previously was the Governor of New York.
            March 20, Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp is completed.  It opened March 22.
            March 23, The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf  Hitler dictator of Germany.
            April 19, The United States officially goes off the gold standard.
            May 2, The first alleged modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster occurs.
            July 6, The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
             August 2, The sailing ship, USS Constitution, part of the US Naval fleet, entered and docked at Portland Harbor on this day.
            August 14, Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn,  The smoke plume from the fire rose to 40,000 feet as the inferno raged across a 15 mile flame front.  The power of the fire created a hurricane force wind that uprooted trees and snapped them like matchsticks.  Nearby coastal cities were plunged into darkness at mid-day due to the thick, blinding smoke.  Ashes and cinders fell on ships 500 miles at sea.  It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres.  Visit the Tillamook Forest Center.  
            October 12, The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz is acquired by the United States Department of Justice, which plans to incorporate the island into its Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
            November 11,  A very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of bad dust storms that year.  See May 9, 1934.
           November, Rev. Carl A. Olsson assumed the position of Senior Pastor at Temple.
            Refinancing of the church took place.
            The younger people wanted more English in the church services.  A vote was taken and members decided to hold on to the use of Swedish rather than adopting the wholesale usage of English in the church services.  One reason may have been the feeling that Swedish was more worshipful than English, and that the preaching should be understandable to the Swedish majority membership.  This caused part of the congregation to leave the church.  Gradually later in the1930's the language switched exclusively to English in the services.
           Radio services on KOIN were begun-"The Scandinavian Half Hour."
           Baptismal service at Temple on New Years Eve - Mr. & Mrs. Percy Seymour, Marjorie Rydman, Eileen Johnson,  Mrs. Carl Ostrom and Mrs. Haroldson were baptized.
           The U.S. Courthouse at Main and Broadway completed.
            The chocolate chip cookie is invented by Ruth Wakefield.
            Nazi persecution of Jews began during this year.

1934
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Rev. Carl A. Olsson was our pastor.
            January 1 - 7,  The Golden Jubilee of Swedish Baptist Temple.  The honor of being the only living charter member of the Swedish Baptist Temple at East Seventh and Clackamas Streets, Portland, was bestowed upon our Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother, Mrs. Augusta Palmblad, when the church celebrated its Golden Jubilee.  Click Here to see notes written at a Palmblad clan meeting August 19, 1934.  (Taken from notes compiled by Harley Hallgren.)
    January 7, The panorama photograph shown below was taken of the congregation in front of the church as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration. 

            February 4, Baptized at Temple - Betty Hallgren, Margaret Anderson, David Carlson, Astrid Johnson, Delores Wickman.
            April 1, Jim Ed Brown was born this day in Sparkman, Arkansas.  He was an American country music singer who achieved fame in the 1950,s with his with two sisters as a member of The Browns.  He later had a successful solo career from 1965 to 1974, followed by a string of major duet hits with Helen Cornelius through 1981.  Brown was also the host of the Country Music Greats Radio Show; a syndicated country music program from Nashville, Tennessee.  He died on June 11, 2015 at the age of 81.
            May 9, A strong two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl.  The dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago where it deposited 12 million pounds of dust.  Two days later, the same storm reached cities in the east, such as Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland, New York City, and Washington DC.  That winter (1934-1935), red snow fell on New England.    
             May 28, Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintruplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne, becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
            June 1, Pat Boone, American actor and singer was born on this day.
            June 9, The animated short "The Wise Little Hen, directed by Bert Gillett for the "Silly Symphonies" series, and featuring the debut of Donald Duck, is released.
            August 11, The first shipment of civilian prisoners arrived  on Alcatraz on this day.  Later that month, more shiploads arrived, featuring, among other convicts, infamous mobster Al Capone.  In September, of this year, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, another luminary of organized crime, landed on Alcatraz.  Earlier, the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay was fortified into a high-security federal penitentiary design to hold the most dangerous prisoners in the U.S. penal system, especially those with a penchant for escape attempts.  
            August 19, The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
            October 18, Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist was born on this day.
            November 27, Luis Palau, Jr. was born on this day.  He says that he was born again at the age of 12, devoting his life to Christ.  He is an international Christian evangelist living in the Portland area in the state of Oregon.  He was born in Argentina, began preaching at age 18, and moved to Portland in his mid-twenties to enroll in a graduate program in Biblical studies.  Palau first heard Billy Graham on a radio broadcast for Portland, Oregon while living in Argentina in 1950, and drew inspiration from him.  He later worked for Graham as a Spanish translator and as an evangelist.  In 1970, Graham contributed the seed money for Palau to start his own ministry, which he modeled after Graham's.  Since then, Palau has held many large-scale evangelistic festivals and gatherings around the world. 
          Read a copy of the 1934 Annual Sunday School Report originally written by Helen Tjernlund, SS Superintendent.

 1935
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Rev. Carl A. Olsson was our pastor.
            January 8, Elvis Presley was born on this date in Tupelo, Mississippi.  The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.  Elvis was one of the most popular American singer of the 20th century.  Elvis died on August 16, 1977.
            January 11, Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
            June 7, See pictures of the Baptist Sunday School Rose Festival Float in the parade.
            November 5, Parker Brothers releases the board game Monopoly.  It is the most commercially played board game in the world.
            Rev. Ole Larson succeeds Rev. A. G. Johnson as Columbia Missionary.
            Bible and Missionary Training School is transferred to Bethel Junior College as the Christian Worker's Course.

1936
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.Rev. Carl A. Olsson was our pastor.
            February 14, Multnomah School of the Bible came into existence.  Rev. John G. Mitchell called a meeting of Portland, Oregon - area ministers and Christian businessmen to discuss an idea that consumed his thinking.  The Pacific Northwest, he was convinced, needed a school that would faithfully instruct men and women in the truths of God's Word.  Other men at this meeting shared Dr. Mitchell's vision.  Classes began the following October in a former mortuary with forty-nine students and a half-dozen faculty.
            March 28, William "Bill" Gaither was born on this day.  He is an American singer and songwriter of southern gospel and Contemporary Christian music.
            May 27, The British luxury liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton of her maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
            June 30, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936.
            August 1, The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany, and mark the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history.
            August 3, American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.
            December 1, First time the minutes of Business Meetings were written in English.
            December 15, Rev. Carl A. Olsson closed his work as pastor of Temple.
            The Junior Parade became an official Rose Festival event.
            Emery A. Johnson becomes dean of Bethel Junior College.

1937
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            C.A. Aldeen was interim pastor at Temple between 1936 & 1937.
            January 11, The first issue of Look Magazine goes on sale in the United States.
            January 19, Howard Hughes sets a new record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
            January 20, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term.  This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on that date, on which it has occurred ever since; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
            February 21, The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile, makes its initial flight.
            March, The first issue of the comic book Detective Comics is published in the United States.  Twenty-seven issues later, May 1939, Detective Comics introduces Batman.  The comic goes on to become the longest continually published comic magazine in American history' it is still published as of 2009.
            May 6, The German Airship Hindenburg caught fire as it attempted to dock with it's mooring mast in New Jersey.
             June 13, Temple celebrated its 10th Anniversary in the building on NE 7th and Clackamas.  See the Anniversary Program.
             July 12, Bill Cosby was born on this day.  He is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist.
             September 5,  Ned Holmgren to Bethel Seminary.  He was a pastor at various churches till 1973.
             Rev. V. E. Hedberg became Pastor.  He was the first American born Pastor in the churches history.
             Trackless trolleys were introduced in Portland.
           
1938
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Rev. V. E. Hedberg was our pastor.
            January 1, Ned Holmgren licensed to preach.
            January 3, The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
            February 4, Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first cell-animated feature in motion picture history, is released in the United States.
            February 24, A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
            June 28, The formal public dedication of the Swedish Historical Museum took place on this day.  The museum is located in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
            June 30, Action Comics #1 is published, which is the first publication featuring the comic book character Superman.
            July 1, Our former pastor, Rev. John Alfred Erickson went to be with the Lord.
            July 18, Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.
            October 30, Orson Welles's radio adaptation of the "War of the Worlds" is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
            Bonneville Dam was completed.  Commercial electricity began its transfer from the dam in this year.
            The Second World War started. 
            Congress passed a bill that each November 11, shall be dedicated to the cause of world peace and hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.
            November 11, Kate Smith introduced the revised, "God Bless America" written by Irving Berlin, from her radio broadcast, "The Kate Smith Hour." 
            Dr. M. R. De Haan started the Detroit Bible Class  from a small radio station in eastern Michigan.  In 1956 they started producing the daily devotional, "Our Daily Bread."

1939
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Rev. V. E. Hedberg was our pastor.
            January 24, Ray Stevens, American musician was born on this day.
            May 28,  Written on the outside of the bulletin for today:  Today we bid welcome to our Pastor elect Rev. Linus Johnson, of Duluth, who visits us this day.
            June 19,  John MacArthur was born on this day.  View his website with all kinds of Biblical information.
            August 25, The church held a farewell reception for Pastor Victor Hedberg.
            September, Pastor Linus and Mrs. Johnson arrived with their children Earl and Marion.  Two other children were Beulah and George.  Beulah was in training at Midway Hospital, St Paul, and George was at Bethel Junior College.  Dr. Johnson came from Temple Baptist Church in Duluth, Minnesota.
            September 1, Germany invades Poland.  Some consider this day is when the first shots were fired in World War II.
            September 5, The United States declares its neutrality in World War II.
            September 8, Friday,  The church held a welcoming reception for our new pastor, Rev. Linus Johnson and his family.
            October 30, the church honored the Rev. and Mrs. Emanuel Bjorkquist and Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Hallgren in a joint celebration of their Golden Wedding anniversaries.
            Miss Helen Carlson started at Multnomah School of the Bible as a student.  Later became instructor.
            President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the third Thursday in November, to extend the Christmas shopping season.

1940
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson was our pastor.
            March 2, Cartoon character Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the animated short Elmer's Candid Camera.
            May 15, The very first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.
            June 16, The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time in Sturgis, South Dakota.
            July 1, The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens for business, built with an 8-foot girder and 190 feet above the water, as the third longest suspension bridge in the world.
            July 15, The Democratic Party begins its national convention in Chicago, and nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term as president.
            July 22,  George Alexander "Alex" Trebek was born in Sudbruy, Ontario, Canada.  He is a Canadian-American television personality.  He has been the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy since 1984.   Before that, he hosted other game shows, including the Wizard of Odds, High Rollers, and Pitfall.   Trebek has made appearances in numerous television series, usually portraying himself.  A native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998.             
            July 27, Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the Oscar-nominated cartoon short, "A Wild Hare."
            September 16, The Selective Training and Service act of 1940 is signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt, creating the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
            November 7, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (known as Galloping Gertie) collapses in a 42-mile wind storm causing the center span of the bridge to sway.  When it collapses, a 600 foot-long design of the center span falls 190 feet above the water.
            The Baptist General Conference publication, "The Standard" was first published.
            Olympic Games are suspended due to World War II.
            There was a fire in Bonny Slope that burned 170 acres.   Bonny Slope is a community east of Cedar Mill which is part of the West Hills.

1941
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  John Garner served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 20, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term.  Henry A. Wallace was the 33rd Vice President.
            February 4, The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
            February 7, it was decided to use the name "Temple Baptist Church" in all publicity.
            March 22, The Army Air Force formed the first African American fighter squadron.  The personnel received their initial flight training at Tuskegee, Alabama earning them the nickname Tuskegee Airmen.  The squadron was originally tentatively scheduled to fly air defense over Liberia but was diverted to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.  They were known as the "Red Tails".
            March 22, Washington's Grand Coulee Dam Begins to generate electricity.
            May 1, The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills. 
            May 12,  Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
            October 23, Walt Disney's animated film Dumbo is released.
            December 7, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
            December 8, United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
            December 11, Germany declares war on the United States.
            Click Here to see the Honor Roll of names of people from our church who were in WW II.
            Congress permanently fixed the date of Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November.
            Miss Henrietta Carlson started at Bethel Seminary.  Later married Mr. Clifford Gustafson.
            Henry C. Wingblade is named president of the combined schools.

1942
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Henry A. Wallace served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 26, First American forces during World War II arrive in Great Britain.
            May 22, The church debt paid.
            June, Mortgage due.
            June 21, Fort Stevens, Oregon is fired upon by a Japanese submarine.
            July 6, Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
            July 12, Sunday, the burning of the mortgage.  Click here to read an account by Harley Hallgren of the last days of the mortgage.
            July 30, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).
            September 9, A Japanese floatplane drops incendiary devices at Mount Emily, near Brookings, Oregon, in the first of two "Lookout Air Raids," the first bombing of the continental United States.
            October 23, Name of our church changed from "Swedish Baptist Temple" to "Temple Baptist Church."
            October 28, The Alaska Highway is completed.
            December 1, Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
            All services at Temple are now spoken in English.

1943
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Henry A. Wallace served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 13, Helmut Schenk is the first person to use an ejection seat from an aircraft.
            January 15, The Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.            
            January 15, The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
            February, See picture of group from Temple visiting Multnomah County Poor Farm as they did from time to time.   Edgefield Manor, as the facility is known today was built in 1911, served as the county poor farm where it was run as a self sufficient operation by the residents who worked in various forms of employment on the grounds.
            March 31, Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time.
            April 25, Easter occurs on the latest possible date.  The last time was in 1886 and the next time will be in 2038.
            June 27, The Clatskanie Church was organized.
            August 3, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 is rammed by a Japanese destroyer.
            September 19, Bethel Baptist Church in St. Johns was organized.
            December 4, The Great Depression officially ends in the United States, with unemployment figures falling fast due to World War II-related employment.
             Miss Lois Sorley was called from Wisconsin to assist Pastor Johnson in visitation work.     
            Sunday School for war worker's children was established in the St. John's area.
            There was a large fire at Alpenrose Dairy on S.W. Shattuck Road. $28,000 worth of Alfaha hay went up in smoke as well as a number of milking cows lost their lives.  A couple burnt match folders were found after the flames were put out.

1944
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Henry A. Wallace served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            February 19,--Click Here to read letter from Mrs. Bjorkquist to Harley Hallgren.
            June 6,  Today was known as D-Day with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France.  This was the largest amphibious military operation in history.  This operation helped liberate France from Germany, and weaken the Nazi hold on Europe.
            June 17, Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.  
            October 8, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio show debuts in the United States.
             October 10, Methodist Deaconess Home located near N.E. 25th and Flanders was purchased and  organized and became the Oregon Baptist Retirement Home.
             October 19, The Oregon Baptist Retirement Home was organized and became a corporation.
             See photo of Temple Baptist Church Congregation on front steps.
             At Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Billy Graham, a little-known suburban pastor led the first rally of Youth for Christ.
            Columbia Conference accepted responsibility for the Sunday School in St. John's.  Henrietta Carlson, (Mrs. Clifford Gustafson), was licensed for the ministry and sent to be the first leader-pastor of this work.  This Sunday School was soon to become Bethel Baptist Church.

1945
            Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States.  Henry A. Wallace served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 1, Temple had their 61st anniversary dinner.  See List of 40 year and older members.
            January 20, Franklin D. Rosevelt was elected for a 4th term as President of the United States.  Harry S. Truman was elected his Vice President.
            January 27, Soviet troops enter the Auschwitz Concentration Camp complex and liberate 7,000 prisoners, including children.
            February 19, The battle for Iwo Jima began.  It continued for a little over two months until March 26.  The battle was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the War.
            February 23, A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island of Iwo Jima and are photographed raising the American flag.
            February, Rev. William Tapper, Director of Young People and Sunday School work in the General Conference was with us and held fine spiritual meetings.  
            April, In the latter part, Rev. Victor Larson, a great powerful preacher, from Elim Church in Seattle spent "Four Great Days" with us.
            April 12, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly at 3:35 pm of a massive stroke while at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States.
            May, The Methodist Deaconess Home (which became The Oregon Baptist Retirement Home) was purchased.
            May and June, Bernie Wennermark was Junior Rose Festival Prime Minister.
            May 5, A Japanese balloon bomb kills five children and a grown woman, Elsie Mitchell, near Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods.  They are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during World War II.
            May 8, Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders (V-E Day) commemorates the end of World War II in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders.
            June 11-22, Daily Vacation Bible School was held under the supervision of Miss Lois Sorley.
            July 1, work was started on remodeling of the Oregon Retirement home.
            July 4, The church had its annual picnic at Peninsula Park.
            July 9, A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn; third in that area since 1933.
            July, Dr. Arthur I. Brown, physician, radio minister and scientist was with us.
            July 11-15, Eugene Johnson, Lloyd Nordstron and Harold Carlson three young men from Bethel Seminary, gave inspiring talks, colored chalk drawings, and vocal selections.
            August 6, A United States B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan.
            August 9, A United States 2-29 Bomber, the Bockscar drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
            August 5-12, Faith Bible Camp was held at Columbia City Fair Grounds.
            September 2, Japanese sign the surrender agreement aboard the USS Missouri--- V-J Day (Victory over Japan).
            October 2-7, We had "five great days" with Rev. Alphin Conrad from Ballard, Seattle.
            October 12, President Harry Truman presented Desmond Thomas Doss with the Congressional Medal of Honor, making him the first conscientious objector to receive the award.   He was featured in the movie Hacksaw Ridge.
             November, A special Thanksgiving service was held on Thanksgiving evening with Dr. Bob Jones of Tennessee.
             December 2, Dedication of the Oregon  Retirement Home and welcome for 1st Superintendent, David M. Anderson.
             December 31, the church had a membership of 333.
             Bethel Seminary's name becomes "Bethel College and Seminary."
             See photo of Temple Choir.
             See the Honor Roll of names of people from our church, members and friends,  who served in the military in WW II.
             This year the Swedish Baptist General Conference dropped the "Swedish" designation from their official name.
             The first and second floors including the custodians quarters were painted.
             Miss Lois Sorley was the church missionary.  She did a splendid job of solicitation of new members for the Sunday School and church.  The church bulletin was mimeographed by Miss Sorley.
             Mr. Earnest Hanson was the church clerk.
             Mr. Harley Hallgren was chairman of the Deacon Board.
             Merril E. Morgan was the Secretary and Treasurer of the Deacon Board.
             Hildur Strandberg was Secretary and Treasurer of the Deaconess Board.
             Mr. Ewald Anderson was chairman of the Trustee Board.
             Mr. Ernie Johnson was Secretary of the Trustee Board.
             Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wennermark were custodians.
             Read an account of the Scandinavian Half Hour for this year.
             Mrs. Ninian Westerlund was chairman of the Music Committee.
             Mr. Arthur B. Carlson was Director of Radio Broadcasts.
             Miss Maydora Westerlund was Treasurer of the Mission Committee.  The following Missionary speakers were heard at various meetings of the church:  Rev. Harold Hetter, of the International Christian Leper Mission, Rev. William Tapper, Dr. Arthur I. Brown, Rev. Dan Ganstrom, Mrs. Ulrich, temporary director of the Christian Service Men's Center, Miss Joy Ridderhoff, Mr. B. N. Hicks of the Anti-Liquor League, a representative of the African Inland Mission, Rev. William Hagstrom and Rev. Warren Johnson.
            Viola Anderson was president of the Senior Young People's Society, Maydora Westerlund was vice president, Betty Hallgren was corresponding secretary, Phyllis Rydman was recording secretary.  The treasurer was Stanley Christiansen and assistant treasurer was Ralph Rydman.
            Billy Graham drew 70,000 at Chicago's Soldier Field; began touring United States as Youth for Christ field representative.
            The school's name is changed to Bethel College and Seminary.
 
1946
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.   President Truman served with out a Vice President until the election in 1949.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 10, The first meeting of the United Nations is held in London, England.
            January 11, John Piper was born on this day in Chattanooga, Tennessee to bill and Ruth piper.  He is a preacher and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  
            January 12, The Baptist Youth Fellowship had its annual meeting.
            April 3, Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone.  Martin Cooper, a Mororola researcher and  executive. made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment placing a call to Dr.Joel S Engel of Bell Labs, his rival.
            April 10, a memorial service was held for Lt. Henry George Carr who was killed in action in the South Pacific.
            April 24, The Blue Angels, US Navy's Flight Exhibition Team was formed making it the second oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Patrouille de France formed in 1931.
            May, the decision was made to purchase property for Lake Retreat.
            Rev. Gordon Carlson succeeds Ole Larson as Columbia Missionary.
            June 6, The United States and allied troops invaded at Normandy. This was the largest air, land, and sea invasion in history. The goal was to surprise Germany, but Germany was ready to fight. It was the beginning of the end of World War II.
            July 4, The church held its annual picnic at Peninsula Park.
            August 9, Hildur Strandberg's parents celebrated there 50th wedding Anniversary.  See picture of them along with friends from Temple.
            The ladies purchased and put up draperies through out the church.
            The lower auditorium was painted.
            The church received a concert grand piano donated by Mr. and Mrs. George Strandberg and Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Salstrom.
            The church received an oak pulpit in memory of Mr. Alferd Johnson and Mr. Sven Larson, by their wives.
            A week after Easter, Rev. Vick was speaker at special services.
            October, Rev. Axel Anderson from Turlock, California led us in studies from the book of Jonah.
            People from Western Baptist Seminary, Multnomah School of the Bible spoke at different times during the year, as did the Gideon's, Rev. Turnwall, and Rev. Taggart.
            December 1, the church had 345 members on it's records.
            Seven boys and girls were led to the Lord at Vacation Bible School.
            The deacons were invited to attend the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Loydgren.
            The Trustee Board reported that the church has been painted.
            The church purchased the residence next door on the south side of the church.  Address of the residence was 1319 NE 7th Avenue.
            December 25, Temple had a Christmas Juletta Service.

1947
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            Walter Anderson was elected Camp Director at Lake Retreat.
            April 1, Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball professional signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
            April 16, An Industrial accident took place in the seaport of Texas City, Texas, which turned out to be the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history.  It began with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp, which was docked in port.  The fire detonated approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate and the resulting chain reaction of fires and explosions killed at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.
            May 2, The movie "Miracle on 34th Street," a Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.
            June 28, Mr. and Mrs. George Strandberg celebrated 25 years of marriage.
            July 1, the church had an anniversary celebration for Mr. and Mrs. George Strandberg.
            August 2, Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon Tiki, smashes into the reef at Paroia in the Tuamotu Island after a 101 day, 4,300 mile, voyage across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could hypothetically have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.
            September 13-21, The First Billy Graham Crusade was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was attended by 6,000 people.  Billy would ask people to come forward after the message and ask Jesus to be their savior and pray together.  The inquires were often given a copy of the Gospel of John.     
            October 14, The United States Air Force test pilot, Captain Chuck Yeager, flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, the first time that this has been accomplished in level flight, or climbing.
            November 2, Aircraft designer and pilot, Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.  The flight lasted only eight minutes and was never flown again.  The plane is now housed in the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum at McMinnville, Oregon
            The house next door to the church was remodeled for a comfortable dwelling for the Pastor and his family.
            David Carlson entered Bethel Seminary.
            Rev. Carl Olsson, former pastor of the church went home to be with the Lord.
            Miss Lois Sorley left the church and moved to another mission field.
            Chairman of the Deacon Board was Mr. Joseph Westling.
            Secretary/Treasurer was Mr. Ivar Nordquist.
            A Shepherd boy fines some clay jars in a cave at Qumran.  In one was discovered the book of Isaiah.  The book is now housed in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.  See 134-104 BC 
            Bethel College Launches a four-year program; C. Emmanuel Carlson is dean.  

1948
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 30, The Winter Olympics opened in St. Moritz, Switzerland.  This is the first Winter games since 1936.
            February 1, The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
            March 8, The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates the U.S. Constitution. 
            May 14, The Declaration of Independence of Israel is made.  The new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established in parts of what was known as the British Mandate of Palestine and on land where, in antiquity, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had once been.
            May 15 - July 18, Part of the 1948 Arab Israeli war.  The City of Jerusalem has been laid siege during the the above mentioned days and also twelve other times (according to the information I have) since 925 BC.  (1) 925 BC, (2) 701 BC, (3) 597 BC, (4) 587 BC, (5) 63 BC, (6) 70 AD, (7) 614 AD, (8) 637 AD, (9) 1099, (10) 1187, (11) 1244, (12) 1917, (13) 1948.     
            May 30, 4:05 PM, the Columbia River had its biggest flood of the century.  Thirty people perished in what came to be known as the Vanport Flood.
            April, a series of meetings were held by Rev. Gordon Hasselblad.
            June 11, The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
            July 10, the annual picnic was held at Peninsula Park.
            July 20, President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).
            July 29, The Summer Olympics begin in London, the first since 1936.
            August 1, Holy Communion service at Lake Retreat.  Six hundred - seventy two in attendance.
            September, God's Invasion Army was formed and started with 35 post high school youth.
            October, A series of evangelistic meetings were held by Rev. Edwin Swanson.
            November 2, U.S. presidential election-Democrat incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats Republician Thomas E. Dewey.  The Chicago came out with headlines that declared Thomas E. Dewey won the nomination which turned out to be incorrect.
            November 9, The Boy's Christian Service Brigade was started and was sponsored by The Men's Brotherhood.  Mr. Dave Johnson was Captain, Mr. Ray Lott, Dr. Evans Nelson and Mr. Dwight Hanson were lieutenants.  There were 14 boys enrolled.  Outings were enjoyed; a hike near Mt. Hood, Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge, Frog Lake near Mr. Hood, Camp Meriwether and a hike around Tillamook Head.
            Harriet Norr succeeds Miss Lois Sorley as Church Missionary.  Miss Norr worked with other helpers in conducting a successful  Daily Vacation School and had an average attendance of 50 children.  
            A new 1948 Dodge 4 door sedan was presented to Senior Pastor Dr. Linus Johnson.
            A children's hour after Sunday School was just started.  Children ranging from 4-9 years old were included.
            The Cradle Roll department met in the room behind the balcony.  Large plate glass windows were placed in the wall so workers could see the services as well as a sound system so the service could also be heard.
            The mission in St. John's Woods is shepherded by Rev. and Mrs. Glenn Nordquist.
            The Senior Pastor, Dr. Linus Johnson turned in a resignation to the church, but the church asked him to reconsider, which he did.
            Mr. Ernie Johnson was chairman of the Board of Trustees and Mr. Norm Ryberg was secretary.
            The average church attendance was 219.

1949
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 17, The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon.  Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses.  Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing the Volkswagen chairman that the car has no future in the U. S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.
            January 20,  Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President of the United States.  Alben W. Barkley was named as the 35th Vice President.
            February 29 - March 6, God's Invasion Army visited Temple.
            Spring, Miss Henrietta Carlson married Mr. Cliff Gustafson.
            April 1, Érie Leaves the British Commonwealth.
            April 18, Érie formally becomes the Republic of Ireland.
            May 11, Israel is admitted to the UN as its 59th member.
            May 29,  the radio ministry was discontinued.
            June 24, The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC. 
            July 16, the annual church picnic was held at Peninsula Park. 
            August, Mr. Louis Pilbeam, the Temple Choir director resigned.  Mr. Harvey Flansberg became the new choir director.
            November 9-11, The Berlin Wall was breached.
            Bethel Baptist Church in St. Johns, joined the Columbia Baptist Conference.
            New Dining Hall ready for use at Lake Retreat.
            Pastor Linus Johnson went to Sweden for two years.
            Harriet Norr was church missionary and youth director.
            The church acquired a parsonage.
            Sunday School Superintendent Merrill Morgan, his wife Jane and family left Temple and resettled at Lakeside Baptist Church in Oakland,  California.
            Oregon Baptist Retirement Home Manager, Mr. and Mrs. David Anderson left for Eugene, Oregon.
            Mr. Carl Ostrom was the church Financial Secretary.
            Billy Graham--A much publicized Los Angeles "crusade" made him evangelism's new superstar.

1950
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.  Alben W. Barkley served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 23, The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
            February 8, Payment first made by Diners Club card, in New York, first use of a charge card.
            March 14, J Edgar Hoover installed the 10 Most Wanted List.
            June 27, U.S. President Harry S. Truman orders American military forces to aid in the defense of c
            August 8, Florence Chadwick swims across the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes.
            September 4, About 25,000 people attended the closing service of a six-week revival at Multnomah Stadium (now PGE Park).  Total attendance was estimated at 600,000. (From the notes of Harley K. Hallgren)
                October 2, The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in 7 U.S. newspapers.
            November 5, Billy Graham brought together a talented team to form the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and initiated a radio program, "The Hour of Decision."
            November 22, Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business.
            Click Here to see a Oregon Journal, Mr. Fixit article written by Harley Hallgren.

1951
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.  Alben W. Barkley served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January, Levi A. Lovegren, Baptist missionary from Cherry Grove, was arrested in Red China for "espionage."  They have been missionaries for the Baptist Church since 1917.  See 1888
            January 9, The new United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
            January 18, Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
            February 27, The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
            March 12, Hank Ketcham's best-selling comic strip Dennis the Menace, appeared in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
            May 26, Sally Ride, American astronaut was born on this date.
            June 18, Battle Ground, Washington is incorporated.
            July 14, In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument to honor an African American.
            September 30, see the bulletin for this Sunday services.
            October 15, I Love Lucy made its television debut on CBS.
            November 10, Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
            Herbert Lawrentz, Seminary student, serves as Director of Youth Work at Temple.
            The current Apostles Creed or An Affirmation of our Faith was adopted by the Baptist General Conference.  Click here to read a copy of it.
            Billy Graham--held a meeting in Portland for one night.
            Closed up this year, the Hotel Portland met the wrecking ball of “progress” on a quiet autumn day in 1951. After it was razed, a parking lot for Meier & Frank was built in its place.  The two level parking structure was demolished thirty years later when Pioneer Courthouse Square recaptured the magic of the block, becoming the heart of the city. Once again thousands of people are drawn to the block daily.
            There was a fire in Portland West Hills:  a drought-related blaze started by a campfire burned 1,600 acres near the western end of Forest Park.

1952
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.  Alben W. Barkley served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            February 14 - 25, The Winter Olympics was held in Oslo, Norway.
            April 15, The United States B-52 Statofortress flies for the first time.
            April 17, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill proclaiming a National Day of Prayer must be declared by each following president at an appropriate date of his choice.  In 1988, the law was amended so that the National Day of Prayer would be held on the first Thursday of May.  A stated intention of the National Day of Prayer was that it would be a day when adherents of all great religions could unite in prayer.
            June 15, The Diary of Anne Frank is published.
            July 14, Franklin Graham, American Christian evangelist and missionary, the fourth of five children of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham was born on this day.
            July 19 - August 3, The Summer Olympics are held in Helsinki, Finland.
            November 4, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat  Adlai Stevenson for President of the United States. 
            Perry Hughes, Seminary student, succeeds Herbert Lawrentz as Director of Youth Work at Temple.

1953
            Harry S. Truman served as President of the United States.  Alben W. Barkley served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 20, Dwight D. Eisenhower was named as 34th President of the United States.  President Eisenhower ran as a Republican and previously served as Supreme Allied Commander of Europe.  Richard Nixon was elected Vice President.                    
            May 3, 3:00 pm, Sunday,  With the help of Temple,  Glisan Street Baptist Church was organized.  The Western Baptist Seminary Quartette and the Warren Dale Quartette sang.  Rev Bror Lundgren, Rev. Gordon Carlson and Dr. Linus Johnson spoke briefly.  The Dedication Message was brought by Dr. Linus Johnson.  Dedication Prayer was spoken by Rev. Anderson.  The gathering was held in the new church building.  
            June 30, The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint, Michigan.  Tony Kleiber, a worker on the assembly line, is given the privilege of driving the now-historic car off the line.
            December 30, The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 USD.
            Rev. Herbert Lawrentz was unanimously chosen Student Body President at Western Seminary in Portland, for the year 1953-54.

1954
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 21, The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States - Mamie Eisenhower.
            April 4, Loma Vista Baptist Church in Spokane, Washington was organized.
            May 1, The Unification Church is founded in South Korea.
            May 6, Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile.
            June 14, The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.  
            July 1, The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 meters. 
            August 6, Temple Baptist Church voted to buy their first Sunday School Bus.
            September 3, The last new episode of The Lone Ranger is aired on radio, after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.
            October 18, Texas Instruments announces the development of the first transistor radio.
            November--Perry Hughes becomes Christian Education Director.
            November 3, The first Godzilla movie premieres in Tokyo, Japan.
            November 10, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery.
            November 12, The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
            November 23, The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86%, closing at an all-time high of 382.74.  More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its 1929 peak level reached just before that year's crash.
            December 1, The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt house of Los Angeles, opens.  It is the first hotel in the world built outside of an airport.
            December 4, The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida, USA.
            The TV dinner is introduced by the American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas. 
            Temple help start McLoughlin Heights in Vancouver, Washington, now known as New Heights.
            Billy Graham--International rallies in London were extended to12 weeks and drew more than 2 million people.
            Carl H. Lundquist becomes president of Bethel College and Seminary. 

1955
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 11, Max Lucado was born in San Angelo, Texas, the youngest of four children to Jack and Thelma Lucado.  He grew up in Andrews, Texas.  His father was an oil field worker, while his mother served as a nurse.  He is a  best-selling Christian author, writer and preacher at Oak Hills Church (formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ) in San Antonia, Texas. 
            January 28, United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China.
            May 5, West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western foreign countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
            July 12, Read the note given to Harley Hallgren about the old pulpit that was given to the church by Mrs. John Nordell and was made by her father, Mr. P.M.  Holst, one of the charter members of Temple.
            July 17, The Disneyland Theme Park opens in Anaheim. California.
            August 27, The First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in London.
            September 10, The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on CBS-TV network.  
            October 3, The Mickey Mouse Club TV program debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.  
            December 1, Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, and the national civil rights movement begins.  
            Dr. Linus Johnson visits Sweden.

1956
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Dr. Linus Johnson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 8,  Nate Saint and four others were killed on Palm Beach in Ecuador while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.  See August 30, 1923.
            January 26, The Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezo, Italy.
            February 22, Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel."
            March 2, Dr. Linus Johnson dies on way home from church.
            Rev. Ellis E. Eklof, Sr., answered the call to be our Pastor.
            March 12, The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time rising 2.40 points, of o.48%, to 500.24.
            June 10, The Summer Olympics, Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden (all other events are held in November in Melbourne, Australia)
            June 29, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System.
            July 12, Sandi Patty, American gospel singer was born on this date.
            July 24, At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
            July 24, Mr. Frank Voth ordained.
            July 30, A Joint Resolution of Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. National motto.
            August 1, Steve Green, American Christian musician was born on this day.
            September 9, Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
            September 13, The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team.
            October 8, Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 against the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Yogi Berra caught the game. Dale Mitchell was the final out.  The New York Yankees won the series, Larsen was named the MVP.
            October 22, Suez Crisis:  Britain, France, and Israel secretly meet and make plans to invade Egypt.
            October 29, The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV.
            November 3, The Wizard of Oz, is shown on television for the first time by CBS.
            November 6, Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest 4 years earlier.
            November 22, The Summer Olympics begin in Melbourne, Australia.

1957
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Rev. Ellis Eklof Sr. continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 13, The Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee.
            January 20, Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
            March 1, Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat is published.
            March 10, Floodgates of The Dalles Dam were closed, inundating Ceilio falls and ancient Indian fisheries along the Columbia River.
            April 11, Michael Card was born on this day in Madison, Tennessee.  Hi is an American Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host from Franklin, Tennessee.  He is best known for his contributions in contemporary Christian music, which couple folk-style melodies and instrumentation with lyrics that stem from intensive study of the Bible.
            May 3, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles, California.
            June 26-30, Temple Baptist Church was host the second time to the 86th Annual meeting of the Baptist General Conference.  The picture below is of the attendees to the conference taken on the front steps of the church.

This picture was copied from the July 12, 1957 issue of the "Standard"

1958
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Rev. Ellis Eklof Sr. continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 8, 14-year-old Bobby Fisher wins the United States Chess Championship.
            April 6, Easter Sunday - See Bulletin for the Easter Program, Easter Service and the rest of the week.
            April 6, With the help of Temple,  Calvary Baptist Church near West Linn was organized.
            April 15, The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-0 at San Francisco's Seals Stadium, in the first Major League Baseball regular season game ever played in California.
            July 7, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
            July 29, The U.S. establishes NASA to administer scientific exploration of space.
            August 3, The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.   
            June Peretti was appointed Temple's church organist.
            Bethel College is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

1959
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Rev. Ellis Eklof Sr. continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 3, Alaska becomes 49th state.
            January 18-25, Temple held the Seventy-Fifth anniversary celebration since founded in 1884.  See the Anniversary Program.
            February 3, A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper and  Roger Peterson the pilot, goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all 4 occupants on board. 
            February 16, Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.  
            March 18, American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill allowing for Hawaiian statehood.
            April 9, NASA announces its selection of 7 military pilots to become the first U.S. Astronauts (see Mercury Seven).
            April 25, The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.  
.            July 8, Charles Ovnand and Dale R. Buis become the first Americans killed in action in Vietnam.
            July 19, The Johnson Lodge at Lake Retreat was dedicated
            August 7, An explosion at Roseburg, Oregon kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.
            August 14, Explorer 6, a United States satellite sends the first picture of Earth from space.
            August 21, Hawaii becomes the 50th state.
            October 2, Rod Serling's classic anthology series The Twilight Zone premiers on CBS Television.
            November, See photo of Temple Choir.

1960
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 2, U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
            January 9-11, The Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt.
            January 22, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descend into the Marianas Trench in the bathyscaphe Trieste, reaching the depth of 10,916 meters and become the first human beings (and so far the only) to reach the lowest spot on Earth.
            February 1, In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.  Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter.  Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same counter.  A section of the lunch counter from the Woolworth store is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of American History.
            February 18, The Winter Olympic Games are held at Squaw Valley Ski Resort, in Placer county, California.
            March 6, The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam.
            May 1, A Soviet missile shoots down an American Lockheed U2 spy plane; the pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured.  He is later sentenced, in Moscow, to 10 years in prison.
            May 10, The nuclear submarine USS Triton, under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr., completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the Earth.
            August 1, The newly built Lloyd Center in Portland opened.  It then consisted of 100 stores.
            August 25, The Summer Olympics open in Rome, Italy.
            September 26, The 2 leading U.S. presidential candidates, Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy, participate in the first televised presidential debate.
            October 12, Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table at a United Nations General Assembly meeting.  
            October 14, John F. Kennedy first suggests the idea for the Peace Corps.
            November 8, U.S. Presidential election:  In a close race, John F. Kennedy is elected over Richard M. Nixon, becoming (at 43) the second youngest man elected President.
            November 30, Production of the DeSoto automobile brand ceases.
            December 12, The Holy Bible in Spanish (the Reina-Valara 1960 Revision) is published.

1961
            Dwight D. Eisenhower served as President of the United States.  Richard Nixon served as Vice President.
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 20,  John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States.  President Kennedy was aligned with the Democratic Party.  Previously he was Senator from the State of Massachusetts.   Lyndon Baines Johnson was elected Vice President.
            April 12, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
            April 24, The Swedish ship Regalskeppet Vasa is removed from the water after being sunk 333 years earlier.  
            May 5, Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury Redstone 3.
            July 1, Diana, Princess of Wales was born on this day.  She died August 3, 1997.
            July 21, Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space (sub-orbital).  Upon splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the capsule sinks (it is recovered in 1999).
            July 22, Jim Daly was born in Alhambra, California.  He is president of Focus on the Family, an international Christian communications ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado,  He succeeded founder James Dobson in 2005.
            August 13, Construction started on The Berlin Wall by the German Democratic Republic.
            December 11,  The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel. 
            Robert Wagner was Youth Pastor at Temple.
            The Office/Gym Addition was built.  Architect was Lawrence Supove.
             was President of the United States.
            The Baptist General Conference votes to relocate Bethel College and Seminary.
            Paul Washer was born in the United states of America sometime during this year.  He is the Founder/Director and Missions Coordinator of HeartCry Missionary Society which supports indigenous missionary work.  He is also a Southern Baptist itinerant preacher.

1962
            John F. Kennedy served as President of the United States.  Lyndon Johnson served as Vice President.
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 1, The United States Navy SEALs are activated.
            January 4, New York City introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board.
            February 20, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes in Friendship 7, Project Mercury.  
            March 2, Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA basketball game.
            April 21, The Seattle World's Fair opened.  It stayed open until October 21, of this year.
            April 21, The Space Needle in Seattle opened to the public.
            May 30, Memorial Day ~  The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations was inaugurated at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, Israel.  It is a pedestrian avenue, which is set aside to  honor the righteous of the world's nations who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.  Trees are planted on both sides of the avenue in honor each of these individuals.  Some 21,000 people have been recognized as righteous Among the Nations to date (as of 2005), with their names engraved on plaques next to the the approximately 2,000 trees planted along the Avenue and throughout Yad Vashem, or on walls in the Garden of the Righteous.  On October 23, 2005 a ceremony marking the renewal of the Avenue was held at Yad Vashem. 
            June 25, The United States Supreme Court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.
            June 28, The United Lutheran Church in America, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, American Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church merge to form the Lutheran Church in America.
            July 2, The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
            July 10, AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit, and activated the next day.
            October 1, Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBS's Tonight Show, a post he would hold for 30 years.
            October 12, The infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with wind gust up to 170 mph.  Gusts of wind reported in Portland of 116 mph. 
            November 1, The United States Post Office Department issued its first Christmas stamp in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Customers had requested such a stamp for years, Postmaster General  J. Edward Day said during the stamp dedication ceremony, adding that the stamp would be the first in a series of Christmas stamps.
            November 3, The term "personal computer" is first mentioned by the media.
            November 20, The Cuban Missile Crisis ends.
            November 21, Steven Curtis Chapman was born.  Chapman is a devout Christian, and as of 2010, he has been married to Mary Beth Chapman (they had the same last name prior to their marriage) for more than 25 years.   
            November 30, the youth center or Christian Education Wing on south side of Temple was dedicated (includes classrooms, gymnasium, custodian's apartment).
            December 14, U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.          
            Jim Spickelmier worked with the youth during the summer.
            Click Here to see pictures of ground breaking ceremony for the 3 story addition on the West side of church..
            Miss Marjorie Olson was church office secretary and Missionary Visitor.

1963
            John F. Kennedy served as President of the United States.  Lyndon Johnson served as Vice President.
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            February 8, Travel, financial and commercial transactions by U.S. citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration.  
            March 21, The Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. 
            March, "Lift" program of General Conference stimulated missionary and general giving.
            April 1, The long running soap opera General Hospital debuted on ABC.
            May 1, The Coca-Cola Company debuts its first diet drink, Tab cola.
            May 15-18, The Columbia Baptist Conference convened in Portland for the annual meeting.
            June, Jim Spicklemier, a Bethel student serves at Temple, as Youth Pastor.  He worked with the youth during the summer. At the end of the summer he left for New York for training with the Peace Corp.
            June 16, Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman, into space.
            June 17, The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state-mandated Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional.  Abington School District v. Schempp
            June 22-26, The annual meeting of the Baptist General Conference was held in Vancouver BC.
            July 1, ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.
            July 5, The Roman Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice.
            July 19, American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles, making it a sub-orbital space flight by recognized international standards.  
            August 8, The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.  All the men were caught and spent time in prison. No guns were used only the train conductor sustained head injuries from a pipe and had to give up his engineer job due to his injuries.
            August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 
            September 7, The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
            September 15, The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed killing 4 children and 22 other children were injured.
            November 22, Friday ~ President John F. Kennedy was killed (assassinated) by a sniper's bullet in Dallas, Texas while riding in an open motorcade. Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes the 36th President.  All television coverage for the next three days is devoted to the assassination, its aftermath, the procession of the horse drawn casket to the Capitol Rotunda, and the funeral of President Kennedy.  Stores and businesses shut down for the entire weekend and Monday, in tribute.

1964
            Lyndon Johnson served as President of the United States.  
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 1, Temple Baptist Church is 80 years old.  Click here to view part of the souvenir program.
            January 11, United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government).
            January 17, John Glenn announces that he will seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Ohio.
            January 18, Plans to build the New York World Trade Center are announced.
            January 26 to February 2, - The Baptist General Conference is sponsoring "Youth Week."  This years theme is: "My Best - For Christ."
            February 1, The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with "I Want to Hold your Hand", Starting the "British Invasion" in America.
            February 9, The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. 
            February 25, Muhammad Ali beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida, and is crowned heavyweight champion of the world.
            February 27, The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
            March 9, The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
            March 30, Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC March 30 – Merv Griffin's game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC; Art Fleming is its first host.
            April 25, Thieves steal the head of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark.
            May 14-16—Pastor Dave Danielson was elected Moderator for the 75^th Anniversary meeting of the Columbia Baptist Conference which was held at the Central Baptist Church of Seattle.
            August 17,  The Forestry Building burnt to the ground.  See the year 1905.
            October 10-24, The Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo.
            Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore is credited with "Moore's Law" that the number of transistors on a micro chip would double every year.

1965
            Lyndon Johnson served as President of the United States.
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            Mr. Dale Peretti was chairman of the Christian Education Board and Mr. Bert Johnson was Sunday School Superintendent.
            January 20, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as 36th President of the United States.  Hubert Humphrey was elected Vice President.
            January 23-28,--Annual Missions Conference was held with Rev. Francis Sorley of Japan, Miss Arlene Coleman from Ethiopia, Rev. Gil Anderson from Ethiopia, Miss Marjorie Malm of Ethiopia, Rev. Don Goldsmith from Brazil, Rev. Gerald Osbron of The Philippines, Miss Grace Swanson of Assam, and Miss Betty Person of Assam.
            February 15, Canada adopted their present National Flag.
            March 2, The movie version of Sound of Music was released.
            March 25, Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully completed their 4-day, 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Okalahoma. The march started on March 7.  Thus was the third march.
            April 19,  Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit would double every two years.  Moore's prediction (Moore's Law) proved accurate for several decades, and has been used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for (R&D) research and development.  
            May 16, --Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Johnson celebrated 50 years of marriage.
            May 30, Memorial Day Weekend, 52 of our members formed work teams and helped make needed repairs to the buildings at Lake Retreat Campground.
            August 15 to 20,--Daily Vacation Bible School was held at the church. Dr. C.W. Slemming of England spoke.
            September 20—a group of ten members of God’s Invasion Army arrived to begin a two week visitation program with our church members.
            Mr. and Mrs. Henning (Josi) Johnson were custodians at Temple..
            Oregon designated the thunder-egg (geode) as the official state rock after the rockhounds of Oregon voted it as their first choice.
            Missions week included Dr. Paul Finlay of Bethel College, Rev. Wesley Lindblom of the Columbia Conference, Rev. Francis Sorley of Japan, Miss Arlene Coleman of Ethiopia, Miss Margorie Malm of Ethiopia, Rev. Irwin Bjelland, of The Philippines, Bill and Grace Anderson of Ethiopia, Miss Grace Swanson of Assam, Miss Betty Person, of Assam and Rev. Gerald Osbron of the Philippines.
            New Years Eve, a slide show was presented before the Watch Night Service called, “Temple: 1965 A Year in Review.”
            Young men in the military include:  Bob Davis in Germany, Mark Hagey in Kentucky, Gary Huff in Texas, Mike Herdener in Alaska, Ron Wright in Texas, and Ric Bailey in California.
            Len Johnson, Greg Anderson, and Klaus Siemieniec are all attending Bethel, the most ever at one time from Temple.
            Bethel College and Seminary moves to the new Arden Hill campus in St. Paul.

1966
            Lyndon Johnson served as President of the United States.  Hubert Humphrey was elected Vice President.  
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            Bud Malmsten was the Assistant Pastor.
            January 23, 3:00 pm, Sunday ~ Dedication of the new building at the Mcloughlin Heights Baptist Church.
            May 25, U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri.
            June 1, The final new episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show airs (the first episode aired) on October 3, 1961.                                                        
            June, 17, Bethel Baptist Seminary in Stockholm celebrated 100 years since its beginning.  Our first pastor, Rev. Gustaf Liljeroth was a graduate.
            June 21, 7:30 pm ~ The Annual Strawberry Festival was held at the Warren Baptist Church.
            September 8, Star Trek, the classic science fiction television series, debuts with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap."
            October, The Toyota Corolla car was introduced.
            November 8, Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican is elected Governor of California.
            December 11, 3:00 pm ~ Multnomah School of the Bible Christmas Concert was held at the Madison High School Auditorium.
            December 15, Walt Disney dies while producing The Jungle Book, the last animated feature under his personal supervision.  He was 65 years of age when he died.

 1967
            Rev. David G. Danielson continues in his pastoral role at Temple.
            January 15-22, World Missions Week brought 4 missionaries to Temple:  Rev. Herman Tegenfeldt - Ragoon, Burma, Rev. Clem Walbert - Japan, Rev. David Sperry - Ethiopia, Rev. Nils Friberg -  Brazil.  The Rev. Cliff Gustafson represented the Columbia Conference.
            March 14, The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
            April 7, Start of the Six Day war.  Israeli fighters shoot down 7 Syrian MIG-21s.  The actual war took place on June 5th and June 10th.
            April 9, The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series takes it maiden flight.
            May – At the annual meeting the church voted to sell the parsonage and apply the proceeds to the building loan for the Youth Center.
           May 28—A reception was held at the Oregon Baptist Retirement Home to honor the retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Walferd Johnson, the Home Administrators. Mrs. Linus Johnson stepped in during the summer as Supervisor.
            August 1, Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
            August 30, Thurgood Marshal is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
            September 3, H-Day in Sweden: At 5:00 a.m. local time, all traffic in the country switches fro left-hand traffic pattern to right-hand traffic.
           September—Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Ronne and Karry Sue were welcomed to the Oregon Baptist Retirement Home as administrators.
            October 2,  The U. S. Supreme Court installed its first black judge, Thurgood Marshall.
            November 7, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 
            December 11, The Supersonic airliner Concorde is unveiled in Toulouse, France.