TODAY IN HISTORY

In 614, Persians seized Jerusalem and captured the True Holy Cross that St. Helena had placed there after finding it. It would be years before the Christians would recapture it.

In 1045, Pope Gregory VI was elected the 148th successor of Peter. He was credited with forming the first pontifical army.

In 1553, Erasmus Alberus, German theologian, reformer, humanist and poet, who helped lead Protestant Reformation, died. The German Protestant hymnal retains several of his hymns.

In 1778, France allied herself with the rebellious American colonies against Britain.

In 1788, Vancouver Island was claimed for Spain by Capt. Esteban Martinez.

In 1813, Christian existentialist writer Soren Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. The author of “Either/Or” believed no philosophical system could explain the human condition; the experience of reality was what mattered, not the “idea” of it.

In 1814, a small British and Canadian fleet destroyed the United States naval base at Oswego, N.Y. The Americans were outnumbered by more than two to one. The victory re-established British control of Lake Ontario for the remainder of the War of 1812.

In 1818, Karl Marx, the founder of communism, was born in Trier, Germany. He died in London in 1883.

In 1821, former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the Atlantic island of St. Helena at the age of 51.