Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly died on this date in 1420. He was an extensive writer on cosmology and astrology, church powers, and the 14th-century Papal Schism in which competing popes claimed authority from Rome and Avignon. His cartographical views influenced Columbus, and a crater of the moon is named for him.
In a view accepted by a number of others (the Dijon Academy Rector Pierre Turrl, a certain Canon Rouessart, and Peter Pearson of London) d'Ailly claimed the world would end during 1789. As the French Revolution began, this may have appeared to have been a true prediction for awhile. (See February 6)
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Ernest Angley was born on August 9, 1921. At age 91, Angley still operates an international evangelical ministry from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, boasting its own weekly television program, online Bible college, and Boeing 747.
Back in 1950, Angley penned the novel "Raptured", a fictional treatment of the modern American Evangelical synthesis of end-time beliefs, which foreran the "Left Behind" book series by some 45 years.
