Posted on 05/10/2008 11:00:48 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
May 11
In 1189 Emperor Frederik I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders left Regensburg in southern Germany for the Holy Land.
In 1421, Jews were expelled from Styria in Austria.
In 1610, Italian Matteo Ricci, a renowned Christian missionary in China, died.
In 1676, beggars were told that they needed permission from priests to beg in Montreal and Quebec City.
In 1816, the American Bible Society was founded in New York.
In 1921, Tel Aviv was declared the first all-Jewish municipality.
In 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member.
In 1960, Israeli security forces captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An SS lieutenant-colonel, he was chief of the Jewish office of the Gestapo during the Second World War and implemented the Final Solution, aimed at the total extermination of European Jewry. He was put on trial in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962 - the only time Israel has carried out a death sentence.
May 12
In 1534, Wurttemberg, in Germany, became Lutheran.
In 1588, the Catholic League under Duke Henri de Guise occupied Protestant-controlled Paris.
In 1942, 1,500 Jews were gassed at Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who tried to reach Pope John Paul.
In 2003, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, a wealthy philanthropist who held a string of top United Nations humanitarian posts and was the uncle of Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, died in Boston at the age of 70.
May 13
In 1110, Crusaders captured Beirut, causing a bloodbath.
In 1314, Russian saint Sergius of Radonesh was born.
In 1648, the first printing of the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly were made available for distribution and sale in England and Scotland. They remain the clearest expressions of Reformed Protestantism ever formulated.
In 1917, three children near Fatima, Portugal reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
In 1977, the Roman Catholic Church approved a decree which allowed it to recognize marriages of men who had undergone vasectomies.
In 1981, Pope John Paul was shot in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. The pontiff recovered from serious abdominal wounds and resumed his duties. Agca, an escaped convict, was sentenced to life in prison.
May 14
In 347, St. Pachomius, who was born in Egypt and founded the first monastery, died.
In 1565, German Protestant reform theologian Nicolaus von Amsdorf died.
In 1590, during battle at Ivry, Protestent French King Henri IV defeated the Catholic League.
In 1610, King Henry IV of France died. In 1598 he enacted the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants. One of the most popular French kings, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. He was murdered by a fanatical Catholic, Francois Ravaillac.
In 1948, British rule in Palestine ended and the independent state of Israel was declared.
In 1982, a Vatican spokesman reported that Pope John Paul, shot the previous day, was strong enough to recite prayers and impart blessings to his doctors and nurses.
May 15
In 1213, King John named Stephen Langton as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In 1248, Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden laid the cornerstone for Cologne cathedral in Germany.
In 1556, Protestant leader John Knox appeared at the Church of Blackfriars in Edinburgh to face charges of heresy. The Catholic bishops had hoped to humble him. Instead he scored a stunning triumph. He later led the Reformation in Scotland.
In 1944, 14,000 Jews from Munkacs, Hungary, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
In 1956, an RCAF airplane crashed into the Grey Nuns' Home for the Aged at Orleans, Ont., killing 15 people, including 11 Roman Catholic nuns.
In 1961, 36 couples were married in a mass Unification Church ceremony in South Korea.
In 2007, Rev. Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist preacher who founded the Moral Majority, died at age 73.
May 16
In 587, Irish monk St. Bredan died. He's known for setting out in the Atlantic with two other monks in a skin boat and possibly travelling as far as North America.
In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.
In 1943, German troops destroyed the main synagogue in Warsaw, the Polish capital, and the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto collapsed after 30 days of fighting during the Second World War.
May 17
In 1691, theologian Antoine Court was born. The French-speaking Swiss Protestant pastor and occultist initiated a movement to interpret the Tarot as a repository of timeless esoteric wisdom.
In 1900, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's former spiritual leader, was born.
In 1947, The Conservative Baptist Association was formed in Atlantic City, N.J., after doctrinal disputes prompted a split within the liberal-leaning American Baptist Association.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, joining Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, along with the Netherlands and Belgium, as the only places worldwide where gay men and lesbians could marry.
In 2007, a Hutterrite community in Alberta that believes wilfully being photographed is a sin, won the legal right to have a provincial driver's licence without a picture.
Have the dates prior to 1582 been adjusted so as to comply with the Gregorian calendar that is in use today?
May 11 is also the anniversary of a non-religious event—the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864, at which Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart lost his life while trying to hold off a larger force of Yankee cavalry led by General Phil Sheridan. The battlefield is near the intersection of I-95 and Rte. 73 north of Richmond, Va..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.