Poet John Donne was born (the date and year are disputed). An adventurer as a youth, he wrote worldly poetry, but eventually was ordained in the Anglican faith, preached memorable sermons and wrote poems of theological depth, such as "Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God."
Birth of John Albert Broadus in Blue Ridge, Virginia. Converted at age 16, he was ordained in 1850. Following the Civil War, when the South was in great economic depression, he taught in a the new Southern Baptist Seminary when it had only seven students. He had just one of those students in his homiletics class-- and that student was blind! But, for that one blind student, Dr. Broadus prepared his textbook, Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, which is still in use today. His faithful study of the Bible has influenced literally thousands of young preachers.
