Bill of Rights Passed by the U.S. Congress (1789) It was on this date, September 25, 1789, that the U.S. Congress passed and sent for ratification the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which came to be known as the Bill of Rights. To Freethinkers, the most important amendment is the first, yet when most […]

Tomás de Torquemada (d. 1498) It was on this date, September 16, 1498, that the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Tomás de Torquemada, died in Ávila. Born on a date uncertain in 1420 in what is now Valladolid, Torquemada was a Dominican monk – one of the famed "hounds of the Lord" (domini canes) – in […]

September 11 (2001) It was on this date, September 11, 2001, that four US planes were hijacked, turned in flight, and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, into the west wall of the Pentagon in Washington DC, and into a rural Pennsylvania field, in a suicide attack on […]

The Reign of Terror (1793) and the Churches It was on this date, September 5, 1793, that an 11-month Reign of Terror began in France. Sometimes called the Red Terror, to distinguish it from the equally brutal but little-mentioned White Terror which followed it, the Reign of Terror lasted until the execution of Maximilian Robespierre […]

Quam singulari (1910): Christian Communion It was on this date, August 8, 1910, that "Quam singulari," a decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, specified the age at which children are to be admitted to first Communion in the Roman Catholic Church.[1] The Catholic Encyclopedia, the authority on the subject, says that conditions for […]

Bastille Day (1789) It was on this date, July 14, 1789, in the morning, that French citizens stormed and destroyed the hated Bastille prison in Paris, ending a symbol of the human rights abuses by King Louis XVI—who had in fact supported the American colonists in their quest for independence from Great Britain—and beginning the […]

Public School Prayer (1995) It was on this date, July 12, 1995, that President Bill Clinton, in a talk to students at James Madison High School in Vienna, VA, advocated school-prayer guidelines. He said in part, “nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools to religion-free zones or requires all religious expression to be […]

The Papacy abused excommunication freely and frequently for political advantage – so much so that a bishop would excommunicate a thief who stole his property!

It was on this date, June 19, 1961, that the U.S. Supreme Court reminded the State of Maryland, and the rest of the nation, that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies equally to the states in its Torcaso v. Watkins decision (367 U.S. 488 (1961); 81 S.Ct. 1680, 6 L.Ed.2d 982). Maryland is […]

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.