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[Frederick Douglass (1840s), Unknown Author.—ExplorePAHistory.com / [Public domain] Wikimedia]

— 1630 John Winthrop preaches “A Model of Christian Charity,” including the “city on a hill” metaphor. William Bradford begins Of Plimouth Plantation, which he will finish in 1651.

— 1641 The founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony draft the “Body of Liberties.”

— 1663 John Eliot translates the Bible into Algonquian, the first Bible translation printed in America.

— 1681 The charter is signed for the territory of Pennsylvania, which William Penn intends to make a settlement for religious liberty.

— 1682 Mary Rowlandson publishes A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.

— 1693 Cotton Mather begins work on the first American Bible commentary, Biblia Americana. 

— 1702 Mather publishes his church history, Magnalia Christi Americana.

— 1734 Northampton Revival begins under Jonathan Edwards, a prominent event in the First Great Awakening. The Awakening will continue until about 1745.

— 1743 A printing of Luther’s German Bible arrives in America.

— 1749 Gilbert Tennent preaches an important sermon in honor of Britain’s victory in King George’s War.

— 1770 Phillis Wheatley publishes An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield.

— 1773 Wheatley publishes Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

— 1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.

— 1782 The first King James Bible is printed in the United States.

— 1783 Ezra Stiles preaches “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honour,” describing the United States as a “new Israel.”

— 1789 Elias Boudinot advances the idea for the United States’ first national Thanksgiving.

— 1794 Richard Allen founds the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

— 1801 Boudinot publishes The Age of Revelation.

— 1804 Thomas Jefferson begins compiling a miracle-free edition of the Bible. Sometime before 1820 he will finish it, calling it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.

— 1806 Lyman Beecher (father of Harriet Beecher Stowe) publishes the first of many sermons and treatises.

— 1809 The New York Bible Society is founded. In 1989 it will be renamed the International Bible Society and in 2009 Biblica.

— 1816 The American Bible Society (ABS) is founded. 

— 1818 ABS makes its first Bible translation, into the Lenape language.

— 1829 David Walker publishes Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.

— 1838 Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon is first published.

— 1844 The Philadelphia Bible Riots take place over a rumor that Catholics want the Bible removed from public schools.

— 1845 Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

— 1848 Moses Stuart publishes Scriptural View of the Wine Question.

— 1851 Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick.

— 1852 Frederick Douglass delivers “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” 

— 1855 Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass, which he calls “the Great Construction of a New Bible.”

— 1856 Bradford’s Of Plimoth Plantation is formally published.

— 1861 The Civil War begins. Julia Ward Howe writes the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

— 1865 Abraham Lincoln delivers his Second Inaugural Address.

— 1868 Dawson Burns and Frederic Lees publish the Temperance Bible Commentary in Britain. A US edition follows in 1870.

— 1896 William Jennings Bryan first delivers his “Cross of Gold” speech.

— 1897 Paul Laurence Dunbar publishes the poem “Ante-Bellum Sermon.” Producers film a Bohemian passion play, considered the first use of the Bible in movies.

— 1901 The American Standard Version (ASV) translation of the Bible is released.

— 1911 Woodrow Wilson delivers his speech “The Bible and Progress” on the 300th anniversary of the KJV.

— 1913 Quo Vadis?, the first Hollywood blockbuster, premieres; it is based on a story set in the early church.

— 1925 William Jennings Bryan takes part in the Scopes Trial.

— 1936 William Faulkner publishes Absalom, Absalom!

— 1944 Franklin Delano Roosevelt issues his D-Day prayer.

— 1952 Perry Miller popularizes the “city on a hill” motif in his book Errand into the Wilderness. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of the Bible is released.

— 1954 Congress adds the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

— 1956 The Ten Commandments premieres.

— 1957 Carl McIntire founds the Bible Presbyterian Church.

— 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. publishes Letter from a Birmingham Jail; Kurt Vonnegut publishes Cat’s Cradle.

— 1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told is released.

— 1966 The ABS releases Good News for Modern Man, a groundbreaking translation of the Bible into twentieth-century English. 

— 1968 King delivers his “mountaintop” address.

— 1969 John McConnell proposes the creation of Earth Day.

— 1978 The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is released.

— 1979 Jesus, usually known as “The Jesus Movie” or “The Jesus Film,” is released. 

— 1989 The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation of the Bible is released.

— 1993 Eugene Peterson begins publishing parts of The Message, one of the most popular modern Bible paraphrases. He will complete it in 2002.

— 1994 The Shawshank Redemption is released.

— 1998 The Prince of Egypt is released.

— 2001 The English Standard Version (ESV) translation of the Bible is released.

By the editors

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