Today in 1969, ‘Oh Happy Day’, the joyous gospel arrangement of an 18th century hymn by the Edwin Hawkins Singers (above), peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard charts. Recorded by Hawkins and his 46 voice choir at the Ephesian Church of God in Christ in Berkeley, California, the choir didn’t consider ‘Oh Happy Day’ to be their favourite song, but it became an instant hit when played on local radio stations.
‘The lyrics were simple and they rhymed, but they were a lot to remember. At the church I wrote two sections on my palms with a pen. The third section I memorized. During the recording, I put up my hands, with my palms facing me. Everyone thought I was feeling the spirit. I was – but I also was reading the lyrics.’ Dorothy Morrison, soloist on Oh Happy Day
Alice Curwen, the early Quaker preacher and missionary, died suddenly in London today in 1679. She and her husband Thomas had not long returned from two years as missionaries in New England and Barbados, where Alice had argued that slaves should be free to worship in Quaker meeting houses without the permission of plantation owners. Thomas, who had spent years in prison for his Quaker beliefs, died the following year.
‘For I am perswaded, that if they whom thou call’st thy Slaves, be Upright-hearted to God, the Lord God Almighty will set them Free in a way that thou knowest not; for there is none set free but in Christ Jesus, for all other Freedom will prove but a Bondage.’ Alice Curwen, autobiography
The soldiers of the First Crusade began the siege of Jerusalem today in 1099, the ultimate goal of their campaign. The Muslim rulers of the city had poisoned or blocked the local wells, cleared the fields of sheep and goats, and cut down the trees to deprive the crusaders of wood for building siegeworks, all of which made it very hard to sustain the siege. But after a few weeks in the intense Judean heat, they were supplied by Christian ships which arrived in the port of Jaffa, and they sourced timber from Samaria, and were able to build siege towers on wheels. The city fell to them on 15 July.
The Vatican City State was created today in 1929, ending more than 70 years of uncertainty for successive Popes. Up until the middle of the 19th century, the Pope had been sole ruler of much of Italy, but when these territories united to form an independent country in the 1850s, the Papal States were annexed by the new Kingdom of Italy, making the Pope ‘the prisoner of the Vatican’. In 1929, Pope Pius XI struck a deal with the new state. In return for renouncing his claim to the Papal States, he was appointed sole ruler of a nation of some 800 people, with just 49 hectares of land, and got a big pile of money. Vatican City remains the smallest country in the world.
Image: Rob Mieremet / Anefo