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(New York) Hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian people, accompanied by friends and families, took to the streets June 25, 1989, for the annual Gay Pride Parade. Similar parades, as well as rallies, street fairs and religious services, were celebrated in more than 80 cities across the country. This year’s parade also marked the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York when, for the first time in history, gay and lesbian people banded together in spontaneous demonstrations to oppose violence and discrimination. Large groups of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant people marched behind banners bearing the names of their synagogues and churches to voice their support of the gay liberation movement. Many of the groups, including this one called “HEAL”, paused in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pray for or shout “shame” at the two-dozen counter-demonstrators, many bearing rosary beads, Bibles and signs quoting scripture, who had gathered there to protest the marchers. Religion News Service file photo by Odette Lupis.
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*This day in history note: On June 25,1948 Harry Truman signs Displaced Persons Bill (205,000 Europeans to US). Caption: (Washington, D.C., 1950) Representatives of this country’s major faith present President Truman at the White House with a statement asking the churches to cooperate fully with the religious ministry to America’s Armed Forces. Left to right around the President: Rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger, President of the Synagogue Council of America: Bishop William R. Arnold, Roman Catholic Military Delegate to the Armed Forces: Frank L. Weil, Chairman of the President’s Committee on Religion and Welfare in the Armed Forces; and Bishop Charles W. Flint, President of the General Commission on Chaplains. Religion News Service file photo
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*This day in history note: On June 26, 1952 – Nelson Mandela & 51 others infringe South Africa curfew. Caption: (1991) “Nothing about hate is simple,” says Bill Moyers. “The closer you come to it, the more paradoxical it seems, presenting first one face, then another. But if we are ever to go beyond it, we must know it well.” The prominent journalist examines the origins of dimentions of hate and efforts to move beyond it in “Moyers/Beyond Hate,” which will be broadcast in a three-part series beginning May 13 on PBS at 9 p.m. ET. Persons interviewed include Elie Wiesel (left) and South African leader Nelson Mandela (right). Religion News Service file photo by Henry Grossman
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*This day in history note: June 27, 1844 – Joseph Smith Jr, founder/leader (Mormon Church), was shot by a mob at age 38. Caption: Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the first prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Charles Carter purchased copyright in 1885 from an unknown artist of the daguerrotype and hired Dan Weggeland to retouch it into this lithograph. Religion News Service file photo courtesy The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Public Affairs Department
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(1991) A peasant child in Puno, one of Peru’s poorest areas. A recent United Nations report estimates that in the past year, a half million children have died from poverty-related illnesses. Religion News Service photo by Alejandro Balaguer
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(1976) The Simple Life – An Amish farmer leaves the road near Bird in Hand, Pa. The one-horse black wagons have become a symbol of the Old Order Amish who regard motorized vehicles as products of this world rather than the next and do not use them. Religion News Servie photo by Sally Foster.
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(1972) Landmarks of Liberty – Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (left) and Liberty Bell are both intimately involved with the independence of this nation. Independence Hall was the scene of the procalmation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The building also was the meeting place of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.
The Liberty Bell (right), which is housed in Independence Hall, was first hung in 1753 and bears the inscription, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” It was rung on July 4, 1776, to proclaim the Declaration of Independence. Taken to Allentown, Pa., during the British occupation of Philadelphia, it was later brought back. It was cracked in 1835 and now rests on its original timbers as an exhibit. Religion News Service file photos by Don Rutledge.
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(RNS Archive) Statue of Liberty photo taken in early 1930s. Religion News Service file photo
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(1949) The Declaration of Independence. Religion News Service file photo
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Jerusalem – Muslim men pray at a mosque. Date unknown. Religion News Service file photo
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Pope John Paul II greets Holocaust survivors in Vatican City. A survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz kisses the hand of Pope John Paul II during a special audience the Pontiff gave recently. Religion News Service file photo
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Jersey City, N.J. – Clergymen and police cooperated in the effort to calm rioters who ripped through Jersey City, N.J., for three successive nights. Ministers drive through the strife-torn neighborhoods in a loudspeaker-equipped car broadcasting an appeal to end the racial violence. Religion News Service file photo
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(1972) New York – Rows of public school pupils participate in school-organized prayer legally banned a decade ago. The initial U.S. Supreme Court ban on state-sponsored prayer came on June 25, 1962. State provisions for recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and devotional reading of the Bible were barred a year later. Voluntary prayer encouraged by school boards was outlawed in 1971. Times of voluntary prayer outside of class hours and conducted by students without any degree of encouragement from officials or teachers today takes place in some areas. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On July 11, 1955 – Congress authorizes all US currency to say “In God We Trust”
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(1959) Washington, D.C. – Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, newly-appointed Apostolic Delegate to the United States, pays a courtesy call on President Eisenhower at the White House. It was their first meeting. The archbishop said he found the President rested and in good spirits despite the pressure of his recent conferences with Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev. He conveyed to the President the personal good wishes of Pope John XXIII. In return, the President asked him to express his hopes that the Pontiff will continue to enjoy robust good health. Religion News Service photo
*This day in history: On July 12, 1957 – Dwight Eisenhower became the first President to fly in a helicopter
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(1978) Buddhist monks stand before Temple Mahayaina, in Leeds, N.Y., in a windtry Spring day. In describing their faith, a spokesman identified an eternal message: “Everything in Buddhism, in a broad sense, represents the search for truth. The search is permanent. The truth is permanent.” Religion News Service file photo *This day in history: 1904 – 1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles
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(Date unknown) Baptism in a lake. Religion News Service file photo
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(1978) Mrs. Beaulah Commack stands with her Eskimo family in front of their Shungnak, Alaska home. Their lonely life in the Alaskan wilderness is broken only by an occasional visit from the father, who must live hundreds of miles away in order to find work as a laborer. Religion News Service file photo
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This archival image has not date or caption information attached. If you know anything about this image, please let us know. Religion News Service file photo
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(1968) President-elect Richard M. Nixon is shown with the men he selected for his Cabinet. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On July 22, 1955 – 1st VP to preside over cabinet meeting-R Nixon
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Diamond-back rattlesnakes around his neck and in his hands give evidence that Lonnie Towe has “the ‘nointing and the victory,” at the Church of God revivalist meeting held in Euharlee, Ga. Preacher F. L. Fowler reads from the Bible (left) while Towe shows he has “the power.” Religion News Service file photo
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(1963) A man falls to his knees in prayer amid shattered glass from windows of the 16th Street Baptist church and surrounding buildings in Birmingham, Ala. Four young girls dies as a racist’s bomb exploded at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15 during worship services and Sunday school sessions. In the following outbreak of violence throughout the area, two young black men were shot to death. Pleas for effort to stop further bloodshed were issued from government, civil rights and religious leaders across the nation. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On July 24, 1919 a race riot in Washington, D.C. left 6 dead and 100 wounded.
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(1985) A Carthusian choir monk sits alone, reading in his cell, at St. Hugh’s Charterhouse monastery in Sussex, England. Religion News Service file photo by Colin Horsman
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(1979) Cuban President Fidel Castro salutes as he and Yugoslav President Josip Tito stand at attention during arrival ceremony on Aug. 29 in Havana. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On July 26, 1953 – Fidel Castro begins rebellion, the “26th of July Movement,” against Fulgenico Batista’s regime
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Father William Wolkovich preaches from a skiff on the “death-life” sybolism of water to boys and girls attending Camp Neringa in Marlboro, Vt. The Boston priest, a guest chaplain at the camp run by the Immaculate COnception (Lithuanian) Sisters, took more than 50 campers on visits to a well, waterfalls and a lake to illustrate Scriptural themes dealing with water. The topics he discussed were Christ’s dialogue with the Samaritan woman of John 4, the “living water” motif of John 7, and the explanation of Baptism given in Romans 6. Religion News Service file photo
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Two Indians on horseback, armed with automatic rifles, patrol the perimeter around Wounded Knee, S.D., the historic village occupied by members of the American Indian Movement. Religion News Service file photo
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(1966) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said following a meeting in Chicago with Elijah Muhammad, Black Muslim “Messenger of Allah,” that they held a common concern over slum conditions later was sharply attacked as a “deceiver” by the Muslim leader. Addressing some 5,000 cheering followers, the Black supremacist also was highly critical of the Catholic Church and U.S. policy in Vietnam. Religion News Service file photo
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Maryknoll Bishop James E. Walsh, who spent 12 years in Communist Chinese prison, was honored during a special Mass of thanksgiving at New York’s St. Patrick Cathedral. Taking part in the concelebrated Mass were, front row, left to right: Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, Apostolic Delegante to the U.S.; Father Robert I. Gannon, S.J., president-emeritus of Fordham University; Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York; Bishop Walsh; John Cardinal Deardon of Detroit, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Father John McCormack, superior general of Maryknoll. Religion News Service file photo
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(1971) Apollo 15 astronaut James B. Irwin salutes the American flag (made stiff by wire on the moon’s airless surface) during the third excursion the astronauts made outside their lunar lander. At right is the lunar rover and the lunar module is in the center. Hadley Delta is in the background about three miles away. St. George Crater is directly behind the rover. Photo was released by NASA after the astronauts return to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On August 2, 1989 – NASA confirmed Voyager 2’s discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2, 1989 N3 & 1989 N24
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(1966) The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and other civil rights leaders, are pushed off the road as they resume a voters’ march begun by James Meredith. Later they continued their walk, marching single file along the highway’s shoulder. Meredith was shot in an ambush by a white man as he was marching from Memphis, Tenn., to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, in an effort to encourage black residents to vote in the state’s primary election. Religious leaders were quick to condemn the shooting and called for greater efforts on behalf of voting rights. Religion News Service file photo
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(1969) The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was among five persons arrested in a rock-throwing confrontation between demonstrators and police on the University of Illinois Circle Campus in Chicago, uses a police microphone in an attempt to quiet demonstrators. Jackson and four others were arrested when they refused to lead a group of about 600 demonstrators away from a construction site on the campus. They had gone there to press their demands for jobs for black residents at Chicago constuction sites. Religion News Service file photo
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(1964) This photograph was found with a group of photos titled “Civil Rights” and the caption reads, “…deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day…” Religion News Service file photo
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(1965) This aerial view shows a half-mile-long column of civil rights demonstrators – including many clergy – on the first leg of the 50-mile march to Montgomery, the state capital of Alabama, in support of the voter registration drive. The marchers – an estimated 3,500 left Selma – are shown crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the first scheduled freedom march was broken up by state troopers on March 7. This time, the march was authorized by a federal court and was protected by Army and federalized Alabama National Guard troops. Leading the walk was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which has been spearheading the long registration effort. Religion News Service file photo
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(1964) A U.S. Senate vote to launch formal debate on the House-passed Civil Rights Bill was received happily by supporters of the legislation. Victory signs, celebrating rejection of Southern senators’ attempts to delay debate by subjecting the bill to committee hearings are made by (left to right): Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Sen. Philip A. Hart, key legislative leaders; the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Religion News Service file photo
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Riverside Church in New York City, located on Riverside Drive and 120th Street near Columbia University where Harlem and the Upper West Side meet. According to the church’s website, the 20-floor tower houses the largest turned bell in the world. Religion News Service file photo
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(Honolulu) Evangelist Billy Graham, now convalescing in the Hawaiian Islands, is shown in Honolulu with Mahalia Jackson, famed Gospel singer, following the annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast. RNS file photo
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This “college” of cardinals doesn’t seem to have passed the fourth grade. Nevertheless, these young “prelates” played an important rold in the re-enacting of the Second Vatican Council for other youngsters at Blessed Sacrament School in Milwaukee. The pageant-play was performed at school in conjunction with the opening of the Ecumenical Council at Vatian City. Religion News Service file photo
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(1983) An elderly Jew stands outside his home in Tunis, Tunisia. He is one of 4,500 Jews remaining in the coutry of a population that once numbered 100,000, and receives food, clothing and other assistance through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee – an organization which serves an estimated 500,000 needy Jews throughout the world. Religion News Service file photo
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A group of Jesuits in Mexico, some from the U.S., have started a variation of the European worker-priest movement to bring Christianity into slum areas and factories. They do not work alongside the Mexicans, but visit plants and poor areas to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and give pastoral advice. In this photo, a Mexican priest, Father Cesar A. Gonzalez, says an open-air Mass for the poor. The Jesuts serve at the El Centra Laboral Mexico, or the Mexico Work Center. Religion News Service file photo
*This Day in History note: On September 16, 1810 the Mexican War of Independence began.
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(1977) The Transcendental Meditation movement of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which gained a measure of respectability and a host of government grans by scientifically documenting the effects of its techique, is into levitation and disappearance. Hard-core disciples of the Maharishi – who attracted nearly a million people to classes on meditation over the past few years, are now speaking excitedly of “super-normal” powers like levitation (lifting one’s body into the air), “dematerializing yourself,” and even flying through the air “like Peter Pan.” Religion News Service file photo
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(1972) (Left) U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers drop their loads of 750-pound bombs on targets in Vietnam. The increase in the U.S. air war over North and South Vietnam caused a flurry of protests by churchmen and peace groups during 1972. (Right) South Vietnamese refugees huddle into a helicopter to be flown to safety as the Spring North Vietnamese offensive threatened their homes. Although the U.S. ground combat role in Vietnam decreased during 1972, the war continued to take a large toll in life and uprooted civilians. Religion News Service file photos. *This Day in History note: On Sept. 18, 1947 the U.S. Air Force formed.
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The Mormon Temple and Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah. Religion News Service file photo
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Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian political liberator, was assassinated in 1948. Religion News Service file photo
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(1970) Freeda Harris, a legend around Hellier, Ky. for her Bible school classes and spiritual guidance to people in this Appalachian hill country, visits a mountain home and talks with teenagers involved in work at the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board’s mission center. Harris became an ever-present angel whose life has redeemed others from sadness, despair over broken homes and the pangs of hunger and lonliness. Religion News Service file photo by Don Rutledge
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(1990) A young Soviet Jew arrives in Israel. *This day in history note: On September 24, 1950 “Operation Magic Carpet” occurred, during which all Jews from Yemen moved to Israel. Religion News Service file photo
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(1975) A Catholic church presents an imposing facade to passers-by in Canton, China. Like most other Christian houses of worship, it has been shut down by Maoist regime. Under Article 28 of the nation’s New Constitution, freedom to propagate atheism is given, but there is no such provision for spreading Christianity. Religion News Service file photo
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Unification Church member urges crowd to sing during a musical presentation at “Bicentennial God Bless America Rally” held in Yankee Stadium by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. Religion News Service Photo by John Lei
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(Date unknown) The growth of the 7-million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has come about largely because of the missionary program, which is organized throughout the world. Every year thousands of young men and women and retired couples voluntariy accept calls to become proselytizing missionaries for up to two years at their own expense. Religion News Service file photo
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(1978) Pope John Paul I, the 262nd Pope was elected on Aug. 26, 1978 and died suddenly just 33 days later on Sept. 29. Religion News Service file photo
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(Date unknown) Catholic mission in New Mexico. Religion News Service file photo
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President Kennedy joined evangelist Billy Graham, left, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in addressing more than 700 men, including members of the House and Senate Prayer Breakfast groups during the Presidential Prayer Breakfast in 1963. The session marked the opening of the 19th annual convention of International Christian Leadership, an organization that sponsors weekly prayer breakfasts and luncheons in major cities. Photo includes: (left to right) Graham, Kennedy, Sen. Frank Carlson and Dr. Abraham Vereide. Religion News Service file photo
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In this early WWII photo, members of the “City of the Immaculate,” above, in Niepokalanow, Poland – including the Rev. Maximilian Kolbe, the institution’s founder and a superior of the Franciscan community there – are marched away to a concentration camp. More than a year after his release, Father Kolbe was imprisoned a second time by the Nazis on Feb. 14, 1941, and eventually transferred from a Warsaw jail to the infamous death camp at Auschwitz, where he was to die later in place of one of 10 randomly selected prisoners. Kolbe died on Aug. 14, 1941 after being injected with a lethal dose of phenol. The heroic priest was canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in ceremonies on Oct. 10, 1982 at the Vatican. Religion New Service file photo
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(1962) Members of the Swiss Guard are shown marching in a traditional manner at St. Peter’s Square shortly before the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Religion News Service file photo *This day in history note: On Oct. 11, 1962 the Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) was convened by Pope John XXIII
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President Reagan is joined at the podium by Elie Wiesel, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, during a Day of Remembrance ceremony on April 20, 1981, at the White House. Religion News Service file photo
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(1989) Every October, the Lord of the Miracles procession in Lima, Peru attracts hundreds of thousands of the faithful. The devotion commemorates an image of Christ painted on a wall by a black slave in the 17th century. When an earthquake struck, the surrounding buildings collapsed, but the image of Christ was untouched. Religion News Service file photo by Alejandro Balaguer
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(1962) Twenty-five happy Cuban refugee families are greeted by church leaders on their arrival in Chicago from Miami. They were on the second planeload of refugees to be airlifted from Florida to another American city for resettlement. The Chicago flight was part of a nationwide inter-religious effort called “Flights in Freedom” whose objective is to have 1,000 airlifts of Cuban refugees from Miami to 1,000 communities. Each of the families arriving here was sponsored by a Methodist congregation and arrangements for their resettlement were made in Miami through Church World Service, relief agency of the National Council of Churches. Shown shaking hands with one of the refugees is Methodist Bishop Charles W. Brashares of Chicago. At extreme right is Dr. Edgar H.S. Chandler, executive vice-president of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. Back to camera is the Rev. Michael Pszyk, Spanish-speaking Methodist paster, who acted as chief interpreter. Religion News Service file photo.
*This day in history note: 1962 – Cuban missile crisis began as JFK becomes aware of missiles in Cuba
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Dr. Albert Einstein, most prominent physicist in modern times, and world renowned for his formulation of the “Theory of Relativity,” was born in Germany in 1879. Dr. Einstein fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and accepted an appointment to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J. He arrived in the United States on October 17, 1933. Religion News Service file photo
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(1976) More than 100,000 worshippers filled Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Stadium for the “Statio Orbis” on “Assemble of the World” concluding the 41st International Eucharistic Congress. Priests and bishops sat on the stadium field during the Mass. Religion News Service file photo by John Lei
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(Date/location unknown) Roy Rogers and Trigger visit Trinity Sunday School. Religion News Service file photo
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(1981) Thousands of members of the Jain sect gather in Karnataka, India to annoint the head of what is said to be “the tallest monolithic statue in the world.” A committee spokesman said, “This is the Maha Mastakabhisheka ceremony or the sacred head annointing of this colossus, Lord Bahubali or Gommateshwara, a patron saint of the Jain sect.” The event marked the 1,000 anniversary of the statue. Religion News Service file photo
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(1989) Kirk B. Weaver of St. Louis, Mo. on one of his “climb-a-thons” atop Linda Glacier with 12,349-foot Mount Cook in the background. He is director of development at United Methodist-related Epworth Children’s home in Webster Grove, Mo., and so far has raised more than $150,000 by climbing mountains. Religion News Service file photo by Robert Lear
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(Date/location unknown) Children praying. Religion News Service file photo
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(1979) Actress Vanessa Redgrave, left, in a pro-PLO protest in London, was the center of a storm over her role as an Auschwitz survivor in a three-hour CBS-TV drama. U.S. Jewish leaders condemned the casting as “an insult to the Jewish community.” Religion News Service file photo
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta, shown with an Indian child in 1977, worked to help sick and homeless victims in the cyclone-ravaged Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. She said her Missionaries of Charity nuns have “all the experience necessary to work in this disaster area because of previous efforts during floods.” “In all these human tragedies, God is trying to teach us something. We are not able to understand Him,” she said as she went about supervising the rescue operation. Religion News Service file photo
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(1965) With 12-year-old Philipe Mabudi as their “mascot”, 30 African bandsmen from the Congo visit London to participate in celebrations marking the Salvation Army’s 100th anniversary. Religion News Service file photo
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(1968) This photograph, entitled “Grace,” won world-wide fame for Eric Enstrom from Grand Rapids, Minn. Millions of reproductions have been made of the photo, taken in 1918 when Enstrom asked a peddler to pose for him. In 1957, he sold the copyright to Augsburg Publishing House, a Lutheran firm. Religion News Service file photo
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(1983) Fred Rogers, host of the Public Broadcasting Service children’s television show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” displays a robot which was featured on a series of programs, “Games, Electronic and Otherwise.” Rogers said, “When children play, they learn, and playing games teaches children so much. Learning how to win and lose can mean recognition that some people are good at some things and some are good at others. It feels good to win, but not everyone can and it takes real talent to be a graceful loser.” Religion News Service file photo
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(1971) A troupe of players in clown-face sing and dance a rock version of the Gospel of St. Mattew in Off-Broadway’s smash success “Godspell.” The play was conceived by John-Michael Tevelak, a 23-year-old Episcopalian, as a religious answer to dispair. In the foreground, David Haskel (who plays a variety of roles including John the Baptist and Jesus) helps Peggy Gordon gaze into the future. The other performers are, left to right, Jeffrey Mylett, Robin Lamont and Lamar Alford. Religion News Service file photo
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(1968) A young person of the Masai people of Tanzania with a goat. Religion News Service file photo
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Three reviewing officials of the 128th annual Sunday school parade in Brooklyn, N.Y., mingle with some of the young marchers from Windsor Terrace Methodist Church school. Left to right are, Borough President John Cashmere of Brooklyn; Mayor Robert F. Wagner of New York; and evangelist Billy Graham. More than 100,000 children and their teachers participated in the parade that marked the founding of the Brooklyn Sunday School Union in 1816. They represented 450 Sunday schools in 27 Brooklyn communities. Religion News Service file photo
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(1971) Northern Ireland’s younger generation plays ball against a wall in Londonderry. The writing on the wall is a recruiting slogan for the Irish Republican Army, an illegal terrorist organization. Londonderry, a predominantly Roman Catholic city, had been the scene of numerous outbreaks of violence between militant Catholics and Protestants and British troops. Religion News Service file photo
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(1963) Red Square in Moscow. Religion News Service file photo
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(1987) Folk singer Odeta sings a “Negro Spiritual” in a concert in Chicago. She noted that such songs were often not just simple songs with Biblical themes, but that some songs of the slaves were literally coded messages telling of pending escapes through the underground railroad. RNS photo by Joan Maiman
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(1961) Four officials of the Russian Orthodox Church, two of whom have been exiled from the Soviet Union, are shown as they confer here at a garden party held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. Arthur M. Ramsey at Lambeth Palace. Religion News Service file photo
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(1976) A fish-eye lens view of the quadrennial United Methodist General Conference at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. During the 10-day meeting the 986 delegates from the U.S. and some 20 other nations charted the denominatino’s course for the next four years. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On November 11, 1966 the Methodist Church & Evangelical United Brethren Church united as United Methodist Church.
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(1973) David Ben-Gurion, the man who shaped the character of modern Israel and its first Prime Minister, died in December, 1973, at the age of 87. Mr. Ben-Gurion came to Israel as an immigrant from Poland in 1906. Under his leadership, Palestine’s underground forces were molded into a single, unified army which won the nation’s independence in 1948. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On Nov. 12, 1953 David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel
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(1972) Children are given lunch in an orphanage in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Church groups rushed aid to the new nation of Bangladesh, which had suffered from months of civil strife and a brief Indo-Pakistani war. Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history: On November 13, 1970 a cyclone killed an estimated 300,000 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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(1961) Integration in schools (location/caption information unknown). Religion News Service file photo by Bruce Bailey
*This day in history: 1960 – Riot due to school integration in New Orleans
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Father John T. S. Mao, director of the Ishih Catholic News Service, rear, second left, is shown visiting the chief of the Aborigines, left, and his three princesses at Sun-Moon Lake, Formosa, Taipeh. With Father Mao are four Chinese nuns of the Society of the Immaculate Heart. Religion News Service file photo
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A boy cleans the street after Kristallnacht in November 1938. Religion News service file photo
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(1979) This sign, displayed during a 1971 anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., questions the “morality” of the military draft. The most active religious opposition on Capitol Hill came from the United Church of Christ, the Church of the Brethren, and the Catholic Peace Fellowship through a coalition called Committee Against Registration and the Draft. Religion News Service file photo
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(1960) President-elect John F. Kennedy discusses refugee problems with Dean Francis B Sayre, Jr., of Washington Cathedral (Episcopal) and chairman of the U.S. Committee for Refugees. The 30-minute meeting was held at Mr. Kennedy’s Georgetown home. Religion News Service file photo
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(1962) Dr. Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is shown with President Kennedy during a courtesy call at the White House. Religion News Service file photo
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(1962) Large smiles cover the faces of President Kennedy and Maronite Patriarch Paul Pierre Meouchi after a conference at the White House. Paying a courtesy call on the President, the Patriarch was accompanied by Ambassador Ibrihim Al-Ahdib of Lebanon, and by a delegation of Maronite Rite clergy. He wore the colorful red vestments of his office as spiritual leader of the world’s nearly 800,000 Maronite Rite Catholics. After chatting with Mr. Kennedy, he told reporters with a smile, “You have a wonderful President; God bless him.” Religion News Service file photo
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(1968) Mrs. John F. Kennedy arrives in Greece where she will marry Aristotle Onassis, reputedly one of the world’s richest men. The former Jacqueline Bouvier, widow of the assassinated President, is 39 and Catholic; Mr. Onassis, 62, is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church and divored from his first wife. Religion News Service file photo
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The burial and folding of the flag ceremony for President John F. Kennedy at his gravesite in Arlington National Cemetary, Washington, D.C. on November 25, 1963. Photograph includes: (right side, front to back) Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Eunice Shriver, Patricia Lawford, Jean Smith, Super of the Arlington National Cemetary Jack Meltzer, (front row middle to right) President of West Germany Heinrich Luebbe, General Charles de Gaulle of France, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, President of the Phillipines Diosdado Macapagal, and mourners. For use with RNS-JFK-ANNIV, transmitted on November 18, 2013, Photo by Abbie Rowe, National Parks Service, courtesy of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
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President Kennedy’s casket lies in state in the East Room of the White House, attended by two members of the honor guard on November 23, 1963. Photo by Abbie Rowe, courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
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The Rev. C.T. Vivian (far right) participates in the March Against Fear and Injustice in Decatur, Ala. in 1979. Photo courtesy of SCLC papers, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University
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(1988) Frankie Fox and Sharon Palm wear Pilgrim costumes for their Thanksgiving celebrations. Their community center sponsored a pageant for the kids to help teach them about the first Thanksgiving. RNS file photo by Hugh Scott
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(1963) Close the mind’s eye to sidewalk, fence and modern dock and the scene viewed is that of the Mayflower, anchored off Provincetown, Mass. in Nov. 1620. Pilgrims, who sailed from Plymouth, England, on Sept. 6 of that year, can be visualized descending from the ship into the shallop (open sailing-rowing boat) at the Mayflower’s side to explore land suitable for settling. The Mayflower II, today anchored in Plymouth Harbor, recalls that early beginning of America. Religion News Service file photo
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(1975) Pilgrams aboard the Mayflower, now free to worship as their conscience dictated, sign the famous Mayflower Compact before landing in Plymouth in 1620. The Compact was an agreement for the temporary government of the colony by the will of the majority and contained a short set of laws establishing certain concepts of religious freedom. This engraving by George E. Perine is based on a painting by Edwin White and is reproduced courtesy of Kennedy Galleries, New York. Religion News Service file photo
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Actor Jeff Fenholt portrays Jesus Christ in a scene from the rock-opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The play, which opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York, is probably the most pre-sold musical in Broadway history and may be the most profitable. Religion News Service file photo
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(Date unknown) Tibetan school children with their teacher. Religion News Service file photo
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Three religious leaders participating in the March on Washington, greet Mrs. Rosa Parks, whose arrest made headlines in 1955. (Left to right, Father John F. Cronin of the Social Action Department, National Catholic Welfare Conference; Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, chief executive officer of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.; and Rabbi Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress) Religion News Service file photo
*This day in history note: On December 5, 1955 – Historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery Alabama by Rosa Parks
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(1987) Filling the straw baskets is hard work for a small child of Tondo slum in Manila, Philippines. Religion News Service photo by James R. Owen
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(1991) The spiritual hunger of the people of Romania was never more evident than during an evangelistic crusade in five cities From May 22 through June 4 by the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association. The Portland-based evangelist preached to 125,900 people. More than 39,400 made a decision toward Christ – a record breaking 31 percent. Pictured is a campaign workers counseling a decision-maker in Oradea and taking her information for followup work. Religion News Service file photo by David L. Jones
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Reformer Martin Luther (center) works closely with several colleagues in translating the first German-language edition of the Bible. The edition appeared in 1532, 15 years after Luther’s challenge to the practice of selling indulgences led to the Protestant Reformation. At right are Johann Burgenhagen (standing), a pastor, and Caspar Cruciger, who edited many of Luther’s writings. Engraving by J.C. Buttre. Religion News Service file photo
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(1985) Chanting “long live America,” many of the estimated 4,000 Sikhs in the Chicagoland area break into dance at an event in the Windy City held to celebrate religious freedom in the United States. Religion News Service file photo by Joan Maiman
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(1980) Nursery class youngsters at St. Francis of Assissi Church, in Staunton, Va., prepare to say grace, as they contemplate chololate cupcakes which are being prepared off camera. Religion News Service file photo
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This memorable photograph – thought to be among the inspirations for the famous Boys Town slogan, “He ait’s heavy, Father…he’s my brother” – was taken in the 1920’s in Nebraska. The boy wearing leg braces was admitted to the institution in 1919. Because of difficulty walking, other youngsters routinely carried him on their backs. Boys Town was founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan in 1917. Religion News Service file photo
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882), author of “The Origin of the Species”. Religion News Service file photo
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(Date unknown) German youngsters receive soup and rolls through school-feeding program sponsored by Hilfswerk, a Protestant Relief Agency, in Hof, Germany. Contributions from American Protestants make these services possible. Children belong to families who have been expelled from Eastern European contries because they are German. Religion News Service file photo
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(Date unknown) A Salvation Army worker with a collection bell solicits funds on a street corner during the Christmas season. Religion News Service file photo
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(Date unknown) On December 20, 1957, Elvis Presley was given draft notice to join the U.S. Army for National Service. Religion News Service file photo
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A bicycling Mennonite maid draws a stolen peek and a slightly shocked frown as generations pass along a rural road near Morgantown, Pa. Religion News Service photo by Richard J. Patrick
Religion News Service was founded in 1934 to provide fair, balanced, non-sectarian news about religion to the secular and religious press.
In the old days, RNS had a staff of photographers who roamed the world in search of images that conveyed how faith was lived out.
Today, those images form a rich historical archive.
Each day we feature an “RNS archive image of the day” for our readers. This gallery contains past featured images.
Enjoy, share, and comment!
If you are not a subscriber and would like to purchase any image, please contact [email protected].