70 - Following a six-month siege, Jerusalem surrendered to the 60,000 troops of Titus' Roman army. Over a million Jewish citizens perished in the siege and, following the city's capture, another 97,000 were sold into slavery.
1565 - The parish of St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by Father Don Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendozo Grajales, chaplain to the conquering Spanish forces. It became the first and oldest Roman Catholic parish established in America.
1636 - Harvard College (later University) was founded by the Massachusetts Puritans at New Towne. It was the first institution of higher learning established in North America, and was originally founded to train future ministers.
1845 - Oxford Movement leader, John Henry Newman, 44, resigned from the Church of England -- convinced that it had severed itself from its ancient episcopal moorings and true apostolic succession -- and became a Roman Catholic.
1928 - Pius XI issued the encyclical "Rerum Orientalium," promoting study of the history, doctrine and liturgy of Eastern Orthodoxy. He recommended that priests apply themselves to special studies at the Oriental Institute in Rome, founded in 1917 by Benedict XV.
© 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church
