Moments Almanac Episodes

One man was born on October 16. Another died on that same date, just 54 years later. Both devoted their lives to making the Word of God understandable to ordinary people. Noah Webster, famous for his dictionary, believed his most important work was revising the King James Bible for American readers. Henry Martyn, a brilliant young missionary, sacrificed comfort, career, and ultimately his health to translate Scripture into the languages of India and Persia. Neither lived to see the full harves...

The Man Who Gave the Rock a Melody | October 15 Some people leave behind monuments. Others leave behind books. Thomas Hastings left behind a melody—and nearly two centuries later, the church is still singing it. Born on October 15, 1784, Hastings entered the world with albinism and significant vision difficulties. Largely self-taught, he became one of America's most influential composers of sacred music, devoting his life to helping congregations lift their voices in worship. His most endurin...

The Bullet and the Prize | October 14 Two men. Two October fourteenths. Fifty-two years apart. One was struck by an assassin’s bullet. The other received the world's most prestigious peace prize. Both would leave an extraordinary mark on history. On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest while campaigning in Milwaukee. A folded speech manuscript and a steel eyeglass case helped slow the bullet. Remarkably, Roosevelt insisted on delivering his speech anyway. On October 14, ...

Thirty-three men. Sixty-nine days. Nearly half a mile beneath the earth. On August 5, 2010, a massive collapse at Chile's San José Mine trapped 33 miners deep beneath the Atacama Desert. For 17 days, the world feared they were dead. Then a drill returned to the surface carrying seven remarkable words: “We are well in the shelter, the 33.” What followed was one of the most extraordinary rescue operations in modern history—a story of courage, ingenuity, prayer, and hope against impossible odd...

Patriotism Is Not Enough | October 12 On October 12, 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell faced a German firing squad in Brussels, Belgium. Her crime? Helping Allied soldiers escape German-occupied territory during World War I. But Edith Cavell's remarkable story is about much more than wartime courage. It is a story of faith, compassion, and a love that refused to surrender to hatred. On the night before her execution, Edith shared Holy Communion with an Anglican chaplain and joined him in recit...

He challenged the church, defended the authority of Scripture, and helped ignite the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. But on October 11, 1531, Huldrych Zwingli's remarkable life came to a violent end—not in a pulpit, but on a battlefield. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we explore the fascinating and sometimes troubling story of a reformer whose convictions changed Christianity. From a controversy over eating sausages during Lent to his famous theological disagreement with Martin Luth...

On a cold winter evening in seventh-century England, a small sparrow flew through a great banquet hall, passing briefly from darkness into warmth and light before disappearing into the darkness again. That simple image became one of the most memorable illustrations of life and eternity in Christian history. On October 10, 644, Paulinus of York died in Rochester, England. Years earlier, this Roman missionary had helped introduce Christianity to King Edwin of Northumbria. According to the histor...

On October 9, 1635, Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading what authorities called “new and dangerous opinions.” His radical ideas? That government should not control religious belief, that worship should never be forced, and that Native Americans had legitimate rights to their land. The Puritans had crossed an ocean seeking religious freedom, yet Williams dared to ask whether that freedom should extend to those who disagreed with them. His convictions cost...

On October 8, 1871, D. L. Moody stood before a packed Chicago audience and asked one of the most important questions a person can face: “What shall I do with Jesus?” He told them to think it over and return the following Sunday with their answer. They never did. That night, the Great Chicago Fire swept through the city. Farwell Hall burned, and Moody later said he deeply regretted ever telling people to wait. Forty-seven years later, on October 8, 1918, Tennessee native Alvin York faced a ver...

On October 7, 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain became a turning point in the American Revolution. Just days earlier, the Overmountain Men had gathered at Sycamore Shoals, where Presbyterian minister Samuel Doak prayed over them before they crossed the mountains to confront British Major Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson had reportedly boasted that even God Almighty could not drive him from his position. But on Kings Mountain, Patriot militia surrounded his forces, Ferguson was killed, and the Loyalis...

On October 6, two great English voices fell silent, 356 years apart. In 1536, Bible translator William Tyndale was executed at Vilvoorde, leaving behind a final prayer: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” In 1892, Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson died after a lifetime of words, including his haunting meditation on death, Crossing the Bar. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we bring their stories together—one man who gave his life to put Scripture into the language of ordinary people,...

Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, and became one of the most influential theologians in American history. But tucked inside the final chapter of Edwards’s life is the remarkable story of a little boy who, before his third birthday, lost his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother. That orphan was Aaron Burr Jr. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we follow the extraordinary chain of events that connected Jonathan Edwards, the presidency of Princeton, a smallpox inoculation, a ...

On October 4, 1535, the printing of the Coverdale Bible was completed—the first complete printed Bible in the English language. Within its pages, Psalm 119:105 declared, “Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.” Exactly 291 years later, on October 4, 1826, Sir Walter Scott was living beneath the weight of enormous financial debt. Yet his journal that day began with gratitude to God for the health and strength he still possessed. Then Scott went to work. His final words for...

On October 3, two Christian musicians died nearly seven centuries apart. In 1226, Francis of Assisi reached the end of a remarkable life—one in which he exchanged privilege for poverty, comfort for service, and admiration of Jesus for the radical pursuit of actually following Him. Then, 693 years later, on October 3, 1919, Daniel B. Towner died. Towner composed more than 2,000 gospel tunes and worked alongside evangelist D. L. Moody. His best-known melody grew from the simple testimony of a yo...

On October 2, 2006, tragedy entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Five young girls lost their lives, five others were wounded, and a quiet community was plunged into unimaginable grief. But within hours, something remarkable happened. Members of the Amish community reached out to the family of the man responsible—not with hatred or demands for revenge, but with compassion and forgiveness. They comforted his parents, embraced his widow and children, attended his fu...

On September 30, 1685, twenty-two-year-old Benjamin Hewling sat down in Taunton, England, knowing he had only hours to live. Condemned for his part in the failed Monmouth Rebellion—and having already lost his younger brother to the executioner—Benjamin picked up a pen and wrote one final letter to his mother. What he wrote was not filled with anger or despair, but with an extraordinary confidence in Christ. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we remember a young man facing the end of his life ...

On September 29, 1770, George Whitefield climbed onto a barrel in Exeter, New Hampshire, and preached what would become his final sermon. His body was failing, his breathing was labored, but he believed that if God had given him one more opportunity to speak, he should take it. Exactly 218 years later, on September 29, 1988, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off—the first shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster 975 days earlier. NASA had grieved, investigated, examined what had gone wrong...

On September 28, 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed something strange in a contaminated culture dish: bacteria were dying around a patch of mold. What looked like a ruined experiment became one of medicine’s most important discoveries. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look at the story of penicillin, the power of paying attention, and the possibility that what seems like an interruption may actually be an invitation to see something new. Sometimes the interruption isn’t ruining the experim...

The God Who Pursues a Wandering Heart Robert Robinson and the story behind “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” What happens when the man who writes one of Christianity's most beloved hymns knows all too well the struggle of a wandering heart? Born on September 27, 1735, Robert Robinson was just seventeen when he heard the great evangelist George Whitefield preach a sermon that would change the course of his life. The message, drawn from Matthew 3:7, left Robinson wrestling with his soul for t...

You probably know Johnny Appleseed as the barefoot wanderer with a cooking pot on his head, scattering apple seeds across the American frontier. But behind the beloved folk hero was John Chapman, a deeply religious man whose life was about much more than apples. Born on September 26, 1774, Chapman traveled through the wilderness of early America, establishing orchards, sharing religious literature, and building relationships with frontier families. He planted trees whose fruit he might never ta...

Who has the right to decide what you believe—your ruler, your government, or your conscience? On September 25, 1555, the Peace of Augsburg established a religious settlement in the Holy Roman Empire that allowed territorial rulers to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism. For ordinary believers, religious freedom remained largely out of reach. Exactly 234 years later, on September 25, 1789, the United States Congress submitted proposed constitutional amendments to the states, including w...

What does a brilliant Greek scholar have in common with a Russian monk who could barely read? More than you might imagine. On September 24, 1934, A. T. Robertson, one of the most influential New Testament scholars of his generation, walked into his classroom at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for the last time. Earlier that afternoon, he had been studying Matthew 6:11: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Before the day was over, he would be gone. Four years later, on the same date, Silou...

On September 23, 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier climbed the stairs to a room in lower Manhattan and prepared for a noon prayer meeting. He had printed invitations, posted a sign, and made the room ready. At noon, no one came. For thirty minutes, Lanphier prayed alone. Then one man arrived. By the end of the hour, there were six. The next week there were twenty, then forty, and soon the meetings became daily. What began in an almost empty room grew into the Prayer Meeting Revival of 1857–58, spreadin...

On September 22, 1776, twenty-one-year-old Nathan Hale was executed by the British as an American spy. Tradition remembers his final words as a declaration that he regretted having only one life to give for his country. More than a century later, missionary C. T. Studd would write another unforgettable line about the brevity of life: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look beyond the question of what we would be w...