Pope John XXIII Crowned

Pope John XXIII Crowned

Pope John XXIII  was head of the Catholic Church from October 1958 until his death in 1963. Born in 1881 as  Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, he was one of thirteen children in a family of sharecroppers who lived in a village...

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Pope Pius XII Dies

Pope Pius XII Dies

Pope Pius XII (born in 1876 as Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli) died on October 9, 1958 after a long, tumultuous, and controversial pontificate (1939–58). During his reign, Pius XII faced the ravages of World War II, the abuses of...

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“Under God” phrase added to the Pledge of Allegiance

“Under God” phrase added to the Pledge of Allegiance

https://youtu.be/Xi8MXIq_0t0 In June 1954, In response to the perceived communist threat during the Cold War, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," to the pledge of allegiance. Today the Pledge reads: I pledge allegiance to the flag of...

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14th Dalai Lama

14th Dalai Lama

https://youtu.be/6dqYEfpJbA4 In November 1950 15-year-old Tenzin Gyatso was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama, becoming chief of state of the semi-independent kingdom, and the spiritual leader of  Tibetan Buddhists worldwide. Born as Lhamo...

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Mother Teresa 

Mother Teresa 

In October 1950, Mother Teresa and the small community formed by her former pupils received permission from the Diocese of Calcutta (Kolkata) India to identify as a Catholic organization. Her order the Missionaries of Charity, subsequently received approval...

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Dianetics

Dianetics

In May 1950  the magazine Astounding Science Fiction published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics divides the mind into: (1) the conscious analytical mind (2) the subconscious reactive mind (3) the somatic mind...

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Cardinal Mindszenty

Cardinal Mindszenty

https://youtu.be/IH7rFQWP0Lk   In February 1949 Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty was convicted of treason by the Hungarian Communist People’s Court. The Cardinal had been an outspoken critic of the persecution of Jews by the Hungarian fascist government during WWII....

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Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated

Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  (1869 –1948) led Indians in a nonviolent independence movement from British colonization. Known worldwide by his honorific Sanskrit title Mahātmā (high-souled, venerable) he was also...

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Billy Graham 

Billy Graham 

  William Franklin Graham Jr. (1918 –2018) was an American Southern Baptist evangelist who held huge rallies, broadcasting sermons on radio and television from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. Graham repudiated racial...

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Partition of India

Partition of India

  The 1947  partition of India into Hindu and Muslim majorities divided three provinces: Assam, Bengal and the Punjab.     The division of >14 million people according to religious beliefs resulted in large-scale violence, with varying estimates...

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Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan. Although written before the Christian gospels, the scrolls contained many similarities, but also some differences from the traditional Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible....

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Hirohito’s Not the Sun God Anymore

Hirohito’s Not the Sun God Anymore

As the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur ordered the Shinto religion disestablished and its concept that the Emperor Hirohito was descended from Japan's sun goddess to be disavowed. The Humanity Declaration was an...

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Dietrich Bonhöffer Executed

Dietrich Bonhöffer Executed

Together with theologians Karl Barth and Martin Niemöller, the German pastor Dietrich Bonhöffer was a founding member of the German Bekennende Kirche ( Confessing Church), a Protestant movement that opposed Nazi attempts to unify all Protestant churches into...

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Easter in Nazi Germany

Easter in Nazi Germany

In a 1939 census of Nazi Germany (including annexed Austria), 54% of Germans considered themselves Protestant, 40% Catholic, 3.5% gottgläubig (non-sectarian believers in God) and 1.5% as non-religious. In the spring of 1936, Der Angriff, Berlin’s Nazi paper founded by...

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Patton’s Weather Prayer

Patton’s Weather Prayer

Midst bad weather in the Battle of the Bulge, General George S. Patton commissioned his chaplain to write a prayer for good weather and victory. Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with...

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Dietrich Bonhöffer

Dietrich Bonhöffer

Dietrich Bonhöffer (1906 –1945) was a German Lutheran theologian and founding member of the Confessing Church that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to permeate German Protestant churches with Nazi doctrine. An outstanding academic theologian,...

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Japanese Demons and Spirits

Japanese Demons and Spirits

Source: 10 Horrifying Demons and Spirits from Japanese Folklore | Mental Floss Oni(鬼) variously translated as demons, devils, ogres or trolls) are popular characters in Japanese art, literature and theater. Hairy, multi-colored humanoid creatures, dressed in tiger...

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Virulent Anti-Semitism Redux

Virulent Anti-Semitism Redux

The current eruption of virulent anti-semitism and violence against Jews in France, makes it imperative that we recall the progressive Nazi legislation from 1933-1945 that resulted in the institution of draconian measures against the Jewish community and ultimately...

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The Mask of Nippon

The Mask of Nippon

Racial stereotypes predominated in Allied propaganda about Imperial Japan. This rather heavy-handed propaganda film was part of the National Film Board of Canada's 1942 World in Action series. Modeled after the popular American March of Time newsreels it...

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Lübeck Martyrs

Lübeck Martyrs

In 1934 Karl Friedrich Stellbrink was appointed to the Luther Church in Lübeck. Although an early member  of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP), he became disenchanted with the party when it began to profess anti-Church attitudes.  In 1936 he  was...

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Christianity in Wartime Japan

Christianity in Wartime Japan

Church of Christ gathering, Japan 1940; Wikimedia Commons When Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the 16th century, thousands of Japanese converted from Shinto/Buddhism to Catholicism. In the 17th century, Christianity was banned - followers and missionaries who...

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Christmas in the Third Reich

Christmas in the Third Reich

  Worshiping a Jewish messiah at Christmas time was problematic for Nazi Aryan ideology. Yuletide celebration with emphasis on the observance of the Germanic pre-Christian Winter Solstice was the official government line. Unofficially, most Christians and...

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