First Church in Plymouth founded 1620.

First Church in Salem founded 1629.

First Church in Boston, First Parish in Watertown, First Church in Dorchester all founded 1630.

Ebenezer Gay begins his 69-year ministry at Hingham, MA.

Elhanan Winchester born in Brookline MA.

In September, 29-year-old John Murray arrives in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey (his ship, the Hand-In-Hand, getting news that New York harbor was closed, diverted to Philadelphia, where the captain learned that news was false; on the way from Philadelphia back to New York, the ship ran aground; Murray was put in charge of a sloop onto which cargo was unloaded to lighten the ship, and was becalmed in Barnegat Bay), where he meets Thomas Potter and is persuaded, reluctantly, to preach. He begins a career as an itinerant.

Elhanan Winchester, 19 years old, becomes a Baptist and is ordained a Baptist minister.

From 1775 until 1780, Elhanan Winchester serves a Baptist congregation in South Carolina. While there, he reads Georg Klein-Nicolai's "The Everlasting Gospel."

Around this time, Caleb Rich (b. 1750) is preaching radical universalism (all punishment for sin happens in this life, not afterward) throughout New England.

Elhanan Winchester begins service at a Baptist church in Philadelphia. He reads Sir George Stonehouse's universalist "The Restitution of All Things."

Second Parish in Worcester MA organizes on the basis of complete religious liberty.

Conference of Universalist churches called in Oxford MA; Winchester attends.

John Murray is charged with having been improperly ordained and thus having performed weddings illegally; he is found guilty and fined. He travels to England while the Massachusetts legislature works to overturn the court's decision; he returns in December (meeting John and Abigail Adams aboard ship) and is re-ordained on Christmas Day.

Benjamin Rush advocates education for women.

Congress charters the first Bank of the United States recommended by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.

George deBenneville dies in March.

The New England Universalist Convention is organized in Oxford MA.

Hosea Ballou marries Ruth Washburn; Caleb Rich had introduced them. Ballou begins to preach a unitarian theology.

Maria Cook receives a letter of Fellowship from the New York Universalist Convention.

William Ellery Channing publishes a new edition of Belknap's hymnal (1795) "with additional hymns."

In March, the United States Supreme Court gives its decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, asserting that the Constitution grants implied powers "necessary and proper" to implement the powers expressly granted in the text, and that states could not interfere with constitutional operations of the federal government. At issue was an attempt by the state of Maryland to impede the operation of the Second Bank of the United States within its borders by taxing banknotes it did not authorize.

Jedidiah Morse is forced by his congregation to resign from his pulpit and the ministry.

Jedidiah Morse is sent by United States President James Monroe to visit all Native American communities near white settlements "to devise and report a plan for the promotion of their civilization and welfare," leading to the establishment of "Indian Territories" and the reservation system.

Ruling in the Dedham case is given (by a Unitarian judge) in October: the Parish is awarded the church property.

Napoleon dies on St. Helena.

Caleb Rich dies in October.

Lyman Beecher invited to preach at Park Street Church.

John Quincy Adams elected President of the United States. The election is contested by five candidates (Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun and William Crawford). Crawford suffered a stroke, and none of the remaining four had a majority. Henry Clay gave his support to Adams, a move Andrew Jackson called a "corrupt bargain." Election reforms followed, party politics were born, and Jackson would introduce the spoils system when he won the White House in 1828.

The Marquis de Lafayette completes his grand tour.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die in July.

Jedidiah Morse dies in June.

William Ellery Channing delivers public lecture, "Remarks on the Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte," inspired by the publication of Sir Walter Scott's biography of Napoleon.

Frederick Henry Hedge graduates from Harvard Divinity School, begins his ministry at (now called) First Parish in Arlington MA.

William Ellery Channing writes "Remarks on Associations."

Abner Kneeland leaves Universalism and becomes a popular lecturer in the Free Thought movement in Boston. He is still publicly perceived as a Universalist.

Unitarian/Universalist split at (now called) First Parish in Arlington MA.

Francis Greenwood's hymnal, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship, is first published.

Charles Spear begins writing against capital punishment.

Thomas B. Thayer ordained.

Bronson Alcott founds Temple School.

"Miracles controversy" begins when George Ripley preaches a sermon arguing that Jesus's ideas were true because they had universal validity, not merely because he spoke them (or because he performed miracles that established his authority).

The United States opposes Britain's alliance with the newly independent Republic of Texas, citing the Monroe Doctrine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes "Nature."

Andrews Norton escalates the "miracles controversy."

Henry David Thoreau polls out of First Parish in Concord, not wanting to pay taxes to support its minister.

Orestes Brownson begins publishing Quarterly Review.

The Dial begins publication, Margaret Fuller, editor.

Margaret Fuller begins her "Conversations" for women.

James Freeman Clarke founds the Church of the Disciplies in Boston.

George Ripley resigns his parish and founds Brook Farm.

First Universalist Anti-Slavery Convention in Lynn MA. (Organized by Charles Spear.)

The Dial ceases publication.

Margaret Fuller travels west with James Freeman Clarke, returns to Boston to write Summer on the Lakes about the Great Lakes; she also begins a serial which would become Woman in the Nineteenth Century.

Orestes Brownson converts to Catholicism.

Meadville Theological Seminary founded in Meadville PA.

Charles Spear devotes full time to abolition of capital punishment as General Agent of the newly -founded Massachusetts Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, and begins to publish "The Prisoner's Friend," a journal devoted to prison reform. George W. Quimby joins him in prison work.

Frederick Henry Hedge ends his ministry in Bangor.

Henry David Thoreau builds his house at Walden Pond and begins his "experiment" there.

Universalists form the General Reform Association as a vehicle for uniting their efforts in various fields of social action.

John C. Calhoun dies in March.

Daniel Webster dies in October.

Tufts University is founded in Medford MA (it opens in 1855).

AUA decides against building a monument to Michael Servetus on the 300th anniversary of his death because "it would offend the orthodox."

Moncure Conway (of South Place Chapel, London) visits Concord and goes for a walk with Thoreau. He tells Thoreau he is studying the scriptures at Harvard, to which Thoreau replies, "Which scriptures?"

Lombard College is founded in Galesburg IL. (It is originally named the Illinois Liberal Institute; devastated by fire in 1855, it was rebuilt with a gift from Benjamin Lombard.)

Thoreau publishes Walden.

FRA publishes Thomas Wentworth Higginson's pamphlet "The Sympathy of Religions" (it stays in print through 1898).

Theodore Parker preaches an anti-slavery sermon in which he defined democracy as government "of all the people, by all the people, for all the people." Abraham Lincoln read this sermon, and circled that phrase in his copy. (Both Lincoln and Parker would also have been aware of Daniel Webster's reply to Hayne in 1830 that the source of the U.S. government and of its power was "the people's constitution, the people's government; made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people," and of the McCulloch v. Maryland decision which stated: "The government of the Union . . . is emphatically and truly a government of the people. . . . Its powers are granted by them and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.")

Tufts Theological School opens (later called Crane Theological School).

Thomas Starr King, minister of First Unitarian Church of San Francisco, preached for California to remain a state rather than become a separate republic (Abraham Lincoln said he "saved California for the Union") and raised 20% of all funds given to the United States Sanitary Commission.

William G. Eliot, minister of First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, heads the Western Sanitary Commission.

From October 1862 until November 1864, Thomas Wentworth Higginson (former minister of First Religious Society of Newburyport MA and of the Free Church in Worcester MA) commanded the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first regiment recruited from former slaves by the Union army.

Clara Barton works on battlefields treating wounded and dying soldiers.

Charles Spear dies in April.

Orello Cone is ordained in Little Falls NY.

In December, the 13th Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery.

Local interest in the Western Unitarian Conference fell off; its administration was taken up by the AUA.

Orello Cone becomes Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature at the Theological School at St. Lawrence University. He becomes a frequent contributor to the Universalist Quarterly.

Boston has 38 active Unitarian congregations.

Hymn and Tune Book published by the AUA.

Buchtel College is founded in Akron OH.

Social Hymns and Tunes published by the AUA; it includes printed music with the lyrics.

Church Harmonies published by the Universalist Publishing House.

National Women's Auxiliary Conference is established.

1880s: "empty pew" controversy at Arlington Street Church in Boston.

William Channing Gannett, James Vila Blake and Frederick Hosmer publish Unity Hymns and Chorals for the Congregation and the Home; it features "dutch door" pages to facilitate mixing & matching of texts and tunes.

The First Universalist Society or Parish in Riverside CA, the oldest Universalist church west of the Rockies. The congregation immediately calls George Deere (nephew of John Deere of tractor fame) as its minister. Deere helps organize three other congregations, in Santa Paula, Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Ryder Divinity School opens at Lombard College.

Brattle Square Church in Boston's Back Bay dissolves.

That Glorious Song of Old, a picture book of Edmund Hamilton Sears' poem (basis of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"), illustrated by Alfred Fredericks, is published by Lee and Shepard Publishers of Boston.

At Lakewood School of New Theology (a conference at Lake Chautauqua NY), Unitarians and Universalists share a lecture platform for the first time in memory.

Social Register is first published in Boston.

Orello Cone publishes "Gospel Criticism and Historical Christianity."

Throop University is founded by Amos G. Throop in Pasadena CA. (Later called Throop Polytechnic Institute, it is now Cal Tech.)

A. N. Alcott, minister of the Universalist Church in Elgin IL, becomes secretary and missionary of the American Congress of Liberal Religious Societies, whereupon his fellowship was revoked because he was serving a non-Universalist religious community. His appeal of this matter was ignored.

Orello Cone publishes "Gospel Criticism and its Earliest Interpreters."

Augusta Chapin receives DD from Lombard College (first woman to receive that degree) and chairs the Women's Committee on Religious Congresses of the World Parliament of Religions.

The conservative Western Unitarian Association dissolves.

Lincoln Steffens publishes The Shame of the Cities.

Federal Trade Commission is established.

Popular newspaper colunmnist Walter Lippmann calls on America's corporate executives to be stewards of the nation, saying they are "expected to act increasingly like public officials."

The war effort in the United States draws many people from small towns and rural areas to the cities; once uprooted, and having experienced the city or service in foreign lands, many would never return.

The Russian Revolution sparks the Red Scare in America. Liberal reforms such as child labor laws or women's suffrage are called "Communist plots" or "Red plots" by conservative politicians.

At the Unitarian Conference in Montreal in October, John Haynes Holmes (minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York City, now Community Church of New York), an opponent of the war, confronts former United States President William Howard Taft (Unitarian layman, presiding over the conference); Holmes and his church all but withdrew from the denomination.

George Willis Cooke publishes The Social Evolution of Religion.

Community Church in Boston is founded.

Humanist Manifesto is published.

In July, Congress passes the Wagner Act, legitimizing collective bargaining.

In August, the Social Security Act is passed.

Federal Writers Project, Federal Art Project, and Federal Theatre Project begin.

New Beacon Series curriculum for children's religious education is created, in the charge of Sophia Lyon Fahs.

Hymns of the Spirit is published jointly by the Unitarian and Universalist Commissions on Hymns and Services. (Unitarian committee: Henry Wilder Foote, ch.; Edward P. Daniels, Curtis W. Reese, Von Ogden Vogt.)

Congress establishes the House Un-American Activities Committee.

World War II begins in Europe in September.

The American Civil Liberties Union ejects founding member Elizabeth Gurley Flynn because of her Communist Party membership, which they say disqualifies her as a civil libertarian.

United States enters World War II in December.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago.

Committee for Economic Development is formed.

Davies publishes "American Destiny," in which he argues that the United States "not only began with a revolution; it is a revolution, and its faith in the freedom of man is the only faith which can unite the world."

Community Church in Boston stops meeting in Symphony Hall.

Federal Council of Churches denies membership to the Universalist Church of America on the grounds that it is insufficiently Christian.

AUA establishes the Church of the Larger Fellowship.

Davies is called to All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington DC. His preaching fills All Souls to capacity; he helps start five new suburban congregations – Arlington, Cedar Lane, Paint Branch, Mount Vernon, and Southeast Unitarian Center (now the Davies Memorial Church). These "daughter" churches later founded three additional congregations – Fairfax, Rockville, and River Road. This success in growth inspires efforts in other cities and further stimulates thinking about denominational growth in general.

World War II ends in September with Japan's formal surrender.

Vietnam declares its independence. British return control of Vietnam to French.

In negotiations with GM, UAW Vice President Walter Reuther tells GM's management that "unless we get a more realistic distribution of America's welath, we won't get enough to keep this machine going."

In December, the Bretton Woods agreement is signed, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In May, strikes by autoworkers, steelworkers, meatpackers, and electrical equipment workers motivate President Harry Truman to appoint a panel that would recommend a 33% wage hike over 1941 levels, to compensate for wartime wage freezes and meet the increased cost of living.

Republican majorities are elected to Congress.

France recognizes Vietnam as a "free state" within the French Union.

Creation of ENIAC, world's first automatic digital computer.

Also in March, Truman gives his "Truman Doctrine" speech.

In June, Marshall Plan is announced.

Also in June, Congress passes the Taft-Hartley Act over President Truman's veto; it limits the power of unions and denies unions access to the National Labor Relations Board process unless their leaders sign affidavits that they are not and never have been communists.

In August, India and Pakistan gain independence.

In November, House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigating people who work in the Hollywood movie industry. The industry adopts a practice of "blacklisting."

Also in November, UN partition of Palestine.

In December, French try and fail to destroy Vietminh.

Efforts to form an International Trade Organization fail.

The United States Justice Department's list of subversive organizations is made public; it contains 78 entries.

Unitarian Fellowship Hymn and Service Book is published by Beacon Press. (Monroe Husbands, Vincent Silliman.)

General Assembly resolves for federal union with the Unitarians, resulting in a Council of Liberal Churches.

In February, Joseph McCarthy makes a speech to a Republican women's club in Wheeling WV in which he holds up a piece of paper that he says lists the names of hundreds of members of the Communist Party who work for the U.S. State Department.

In March in Britain, Klaus Fuchs, who had worked on the Manhattan Project, is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

In March, the term "McCarthyism" is coined in a Washington Post cartoon by Herbert Block.

In June, Senator Margaret Chase Smith delivers a "Statement of Conscience" attacking McCarthyism. She is joined by six other senators in condemning McCarthy.

Also in June, Truman sends US troops to Korea.

In July, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed, accused of spying for the Soviet Union.

Also in July, US pledges aid to France against Vietnam.

In November, the Subversive Activities Control Board is created under the new McCarran Internal Security Act; it is charged with registering organizations it finds to be "communist front organizations;" members of such organizations would be ineligible for citizenship.

In December, the Senate Internal Security Committee is established.

In March, Justice William O. Douglas dissents from a Supreme Court decision upholding loyalty reviews by the Board of Education of New York City.

Number of FBI agents doubles to 7029 from 3559 in 1946.

In April, United States President Dwight Eisenhower strengthens Truman's loyalty review order.

In July, France grants Laos independence.

In August, the Shah of Iran is restored to power with covert help from the British and American governments.

Joseph McCarthy heads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He enjoys popular support from the American Legion, Christian fundamentalists, and various anti-communist organizations.

Charles E. Wilson, President of GM, in his confirmation hearing to become Secretary of Defense, tells Congress that what's good for GM is good for the country.

In November, Cambodia gains independence.

In December, Playboy magazine debuts.

Liberal Religious Youth is formed, a joint Unitarian and Universalist youth organization.

In March, Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now" airs "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." Murrow comments: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men."

In April, ABC television broadcasts the Army-McCarthy hearings, in which Joseph Welch, attorney for the Army, famously rebuked McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

In May, the Supreme Court announces its decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Also in May, the French are defeated by the Vietminh in the Battle of Dienbienphu. Eisenhower responds by outlining the "Domino Theory."

In June, a US-sponsored coup d'etat replaces the elected government of Guatemala with a military dictatorship.

In July, France begins leaving Vietnam after 100 years of colonial rule. Vietnam is partitioned into North and South.

In August, Congress passes the Communist Control Act.

Last regular meeting of the Humiliati.

Rev. Toribio Quimada founds the Universalist Church of the Philippines, affiliates with the Universalist Church in America.

In August in Mississippi, Emmett Till is murdered, allegedly for whistling at a white woman.

During the summer, Allen Ginsberg writes "Howl."

Graham Greene publishes The Quiet American.

In December in Montgomery AL, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus.

More than a third of American workers belong to a labor union.

We Sing of Life: Songs for Children, Young People, Adults is published by Starr King Press (distributed by Beacon Press). Vincent Silliman, ed., Irving Lowens, Music Editor.

In April, the Supreme Court overturns the dismissal by loyalty review of a New York schoolteacher because of suspected former Communist Party membership.

Also in April, last French battalion leaves Saigon.

Also in April, Sea-Land Service (a trucking firm) begins the world's first shipments by cargo container.

In June, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act is passed, inaugurating the interstate highway system.

In October and November, revolution in Hungary breaks out and is quashed by the Soviet military.

By January, the Vietcong has organized; terrorist bombings in Saigon occur later in the year.

In June, the Supreme Court overturns the convictions of five Communist Party members in California under the 1940 Alien Registration Act.

Also in June, the Court curtailed the power of the House Un-American Activities Committee to punish uncooperative witnesses by declaring them in contempt of Congress.

In September, Eisenhower orders the National Guard to intervene to support the integration of Little Rock Central High School.

In October, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik.

In September, the National Defense Education Act – a response to Sputnik – becomes law.

John Kenneth Galbraith publishes The Affluent Society, in which he argues for government spending on education and infrastructure.

In April in Raleigh NC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is organized.

In May, "Freedom Riders" – more than 1000 black and white volunteers recruited by SNCC and CORE – test new laws against segregation in interstate travel.

Also in May, Vice President Lyndon Johnson visits Saigon. South Vietnam has been defeating North Vietnam in battle.

Canadian Unitarian Council is formed in May.