July 18, 64: The Great Fire of Rome begins, and to direct suspicion away from himself, young Emperor Nero blames the city's Christians. A persecution followed in which Christians were (among other punishments) burned alive (see issue 27: Persecution in the Early Church).

July 18, 1504: Henry Bullinger, Ulrich Zwingli's successor as chief pastor of Zurich and a close associate of Cranmer, Melanchthon, Calvin, and Beza, is born in Switzerland (see issue 4: Ulrich Zwingli).

July 18, 1870: The Vatican I Council votes 533 to 2 in favor of "papal infallibility" as defined that "the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church . . . is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his church should be endowed."

July 17, 180: Seven men and five women who had been captured carrying "the sacred books, and the letters of Paul" are tried before Roman proconsul Saturninus. Since none would renounce their Christian faith, all 12 were beheaded (see issue 27: Persecution in the Early Church).

July 17, 431: The Council of Ephesus adjourns, having rejected Nestorianism (the idea that Christ had two persons, not two natures) and condemned Pelagianism (a doctrine refuting human depravity) (see issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church).

July 17, 1505: Martin Luther enters the Augustinian monastic order at Erfurt, Germany, at age 21 (see issue 34: Luther's Early Years).

July 17, 1674: Isaac Watts, author of about 600 hymns, is born in Southampton, England.

July 17, 1917: American Baptist radio evangelist Charles E. Fuller accepts Christ as his savior. Fuller was ordained in 1925 and in 1937 began the pioneer program The Old Fashioned Revival Hour. He also helped found Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

July 16, 1519: The Disputation of Leipzig, in which Martin Luther argued that church councils had been wrong and that the church did not have ultimate doctrinal authority, ends (see issue 34: Luther’s Early Years).

July 16, 1769: Spanish Franciscan friar Father Junipero Serra founds the San Diego de Alcala mission in California, the first permanent Spanish settlement on the west coast of America (see issue 35: Christopher Columbus).

July 16, 1931: Missionary C.T. Studd, one of the famous “Cambridge Seven” and evangelist to China, India, and Africa, dies (see issue 52: Hudson Taylor).

July 15, 1015: Vladimir, the grand prince of Russia who made Orthodox Christianity the national religion, dies at age 59 (see issue 18: Russian Christianity).

July 15, 1099: The First Crusade captures Jerusalem, massacring thousands. “The city was filled with corpses and blood,” wrote one chronicler (see issue 40: The Crusades).

July 15, 1606: Dutch Painter Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn is born to a wealthy family in Leyden. Personal tragedies seemed to deepen the spiritual dimensions of his art, and he eventually created nearly 90 paintings and etchings depicting Christ’s passion.

July 15, 1704: August G. Spangenberg, bishop of the Unitas Fratrum and founder of the Moravian Church in North America, is born in Germany (see issue 1: Nicolaus Zinzendorf).

July 14, 1833: Anglican clergyman John Keble preaches his famous sermon on national apostasy, marking the beginning of the Oxford Movement in England. Keble was joined by John Henry Newman and E.B. Pusey, who led this effort to purify and revitalize the Anglican Church by reviving the ideals and practices of the pre-Reformation English church.

July 13, 1886: Father Edward Flanagan, the Roman Catholic parish priest who founded Boys Town (orginally named the Home for Homeless Boys) near Omaha, Nebraska, is born in Roscommon, Ireland.

July 13, 1917: Three children in Fatima, Portugal, report seeing visions of the Virgin Mary.