February 8
356: Athanasius of Alexandria goes for the third time into hiding, after escaping the soldiers. He was falsely accused of being a traitor of his land and for opposing the teachings of Arius. He had to go into exile altogether five times.
1250: King Louis IX of France – St. Louis – is defeated and taken captive in a crusade in which he attacked Egypt.
1529: Revolution in Basel, Switzerland by a Protestant mob which surrounded the town hall, planted cannon, and forced the council to expel its twelve Catholic members. They also vandalized the nearby church, destroying church pictures and statues in it. Reformer Oecolampadius later wrote about it: “We raged against the idols, and the mass died of sorrow.”
1587: Beheading of the Catholic prisoner Mary, Queen of Scots, at the orders of the Protestant queen, Elizabeth I of England; she was accused of having plotted to assassinate Elizabeth.
1744: David Brainerd, colonial missionary to the American Indians, confesses in his journal: “I find that both mind and body are quickly tired with intenseness and fervor in the things of God. Oh that I could be as incessant as angels in devotion and spiritual fervor.”
1851: Death of Alexander Haldane, the founder of the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home. He was disappointed that the Church of Scotland was not interested in either home missions or in foreign missions.
1883: Death of hymn-writer Mary Stanley Dana Shindler, the best-known of her hymns began with the words “Flee as a bird to your mountain, thou who art weary of sin.”
1893: Confirmation in the Anglican Church of Hamu Lujonza Kaddu Mukasa, a strong defender of Christianity in Uganda. He countered the Christian persecution by Muslims and led a  strong military counter-attack. Later he took control of the land and won the political control of the nation for Christians.
2001: Death of Rousas John Rushdoony, a Presbyterian clergyman and theologian in America. He is known as the “Father of Christian Reconstruction” because he advocated strict implementation of biblical moral law in America.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org