On this day in 1993, Mary Adelia Mcleod was consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. Mcleod is the first woman elected to serve as head of a diocese in the Episcopal Church in the United States.

On this day in 1164, Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, left for France for a six-year exile after being condemned in royal court for "ingratitude" toward England's Henry II, who had once been his dear friend.

On this day in 1610, Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in London. 

On this day in 1534, British Parliament passed the Supremacy Act, whereby Henry VIII and his successors to the English throne were declared "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England."

On this day in 1740, English priest Augustus Toplady, author of the hymn "Rock of Ages," was born.

On this day in 1826, Timothy R. Matthews, priest and hymn writer, was born in Colmworth, England.

On this day in 1977, Oscar Clark Carr, Jr., a church and human rights leader died of cancer.

On this day in 1836, Herbert Beaver, the first Anglican priest in Oregon, arrived at Ft. Vancouver.

On this day in 1993, the 208th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts adopted resolutions on blessings of same-sex unions and ordination of homosexuals.

On this day in 1996, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church met in a joint session with the Council of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada in Toronto.

On this day in 1840, George Hugh Bourne, priest and hymnist, was born at Saint Paul's Cray, Kent, England.

On this day in 1874, James Theodore Holly became the first African-American bishop and later went on to found of the Anglican Church in Haiti.

On this day in 1851, William Crosswell, priest and hymnist, died in Boston, Massachusetts.

On this day in 1889, Edwin Hatch, Anglican Old Testament scholar, died in Oxford, England. Hatch was best known as the author of the paper "Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church," which he presented during the 1888 Hibbert Lectures.

On this day in 1992, after a five-and-a-half hour debate the General Synod - the Church of England's parliament - passed controversial legislation to allow women to be priests by a margin of only two votes.

On this day in 1701, the Carolina Assembly passed the Vestry Act of 1701, making the Church of England the official religion of the Carolina colony. Active opposition by Quakers and other religious Nonconformists who lived there ultimately convinced the proprietors of the colony to revoke the act in 1703.

On this day in 354, Augustine of Hippo, author of Confessions and City of God, was born in Thagaste.

On this day in 565, Roman Emperor Justinian died at age 82. During his reign, he reunited the Eastern and Western empires politically and religiously, erected several new basilicas in Constantinople, and created the Justinian Code, which greatly influenced the development of canon law in the Middle Ages.

On this day in 1731, William Cowper, British hymnist and poet, was born, in Hertfordshire, England.

On this day in 1976, the United Church of Lanka was inaugurated at a ceremony in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). The church union involved the two Anglican dioceses in Sri Lanka -- Colombo and Kurunagala -- as well as the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches, and the Jaffna Diocese in Sri Lanka of the Church of South India.

On this day in 1558, Elizabeth I's accession to the English throne led to the re-establishment of the Church of England.

On this day in 1874, Arthur Tozer Russell, hymn translator, died at Rectory of Southwick, near Brighton, England.

On this day in 1900, Samuel J. Stone, Anglican priest and hymnist, died in Charterhouse, Somerset, England.

On this day in 1847, Henry Francis Lyte, Anglican Divine and hymnist, died at Nice, France.

On this day in 1695, Henry Purcell, English organist and composer of church music, died at Dean's Yard, Westminster.

On this day in 1900, Arthur S. Sullivan, English religious composer, died.

On this day 1992, the Anglican Church in Australia approved the ordination of women.

On this day in 1585, Thomas Tallis, composer, died in Greenwich, England.

On this day in 1621, poet and priest John Donne was elected dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London.

On this day in 1860, George Croly, Anglican Divine and hymnist, died.

On this day in 1820, English poet and Oxford Movement leader John Keble wrote the words to the hymn "Sun of My Soul."

On this day in 1877, William H. Bathurst, Anglican priest and hymnist, died at Lydney Park, England.

On this day in 1731, William Cowper, hymnist, was born at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England.

On this day in 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. President and Episcopalian, signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

On this day in 1885, Benjamin Webb, priest and composer, died in London, England.

On this day in 1757, William Blake, English poet and artist, was born in London, England.

On this day in 1530, Thomas Wolsey, cardinal and Lord Chancellor to England's King Henry VIII, died. Known as "a statesman rather than a churchman," Wolsey dismantled monasteries to fund Oxford University and devoted his life to king and country.

On this day in 1898, C.S. Lewis, Anglican scholar and writer, was born in Belfast, Ireland.

On this day in 1970, Church of North India was inaugurated at Nagpur with the union of: The Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (Anglican), The United Church of Northern India (Congregationalist and Presbyterian), the Baptist Churches of Northern India (British Baptists), the Churches of the Brethren in India, The Methodist Church (British and Australia Conferences) and the Disciples of Christ denominations.

On this day in 1170, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket returned from a six-year exile in France for his opposition to the policies of Henry II. Four weeks after his return, four of Henry's knights murdered Thomas in the Canterbury Cathedral.

On this day in 1554, recently crowned Queen of England, Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, restored Roman Catholicism to the country. Nearly 300 Protestants would be burned at the stake by "Bloody Mary," including Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley. Nearly 400 more died by imprisonment and starvation.

On this day in 1729, Samuel Seabury, first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, was born in Groton, Connecticut.

On this day 1883, the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew, an organization of laymen in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, was organized in Chicago.