June 18, 1464: Pope Pius II begins a crusade against the Turks. He died on the way to a rendezvous with his allies, and the crusading mentality died with him.
June 18, 1546: Protestant Anne Askew is condemned in England for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation (the idea that sacramental bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Christ). When asked by her accuser, “Sayest thou that priests cannot make the body of Christ?” she answered, “I have read that God made man; but that man can make God, I never yet read, nor, I suppose, shall ever read.
June 18, 1956: Founder of The Navigators, Dawson Trotman dies of a heart attack while rescuing a swimmer at a summer Navigators conference in the Adirondacks.
