A catastrophic fire broke out in the medieval roof of Notre-Dame de Paris, the French Gothic cathedral, just before 6.20pm, today in 2019. By 7pm, first smoke and then flames became visible from the streets below, which quickly filled with anxious crowds. Shortly before 8pm, the 96m tall flèche (the wooden spire, seen above) collapsed. The body of the cathedral was saved by its stone vault ceiling, which held when the burning roof collapsed, and by the more than 400 firefighters at the scene. Had the vault failed, the church’s famous flying buttresses might have caused the walls of the nave to implode.
Nikita Khrushchev, the bullish leader of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 60s, was born today in 1894 in a poor Russian village. During his premiership, he launched a devastating assault on Christianity. He imprisoned all kinds of professional Christians on fictional charges, shut down two-thirds of the country’s churches and monasteries, and banned children from going to church.
‘Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.’ Nikita Khrushchev, 1956
On this day in 1972, 200 years after his death, hymnwriter John Newton finally hit the big time when his hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’, made it to No.1 in the UK charts. Recorded as a bagpipe solo by the band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, it stayed at No. 1 for a richly deserved five weeks.
It is St Hunna’s Day. The wife of a nobleman from Strasbourg, she made it to sainthood by doing laundry for all her neighbours, regardless of class. They called her the Holy Washerwoman. She died in the year 679.
Image: Larry Koester under CC BY 2.0