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Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He established the first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the Church of England and published the Exhortation and Litany. When Edward VI was king, Cranmer published the Book of Common Prayer, changed doctrine or discipline in several areas, and promulgated the new doctrines through the Homilies. Upon the accession of Mary I, Cranmer was put on trial for treason and heresy. While imprisoned he made recantations and reconciled himself with the Catholic Church. Mary pushed for his execution, and he was burned at the stake after withdrawing his recantations. Cranmer's death was immortalised in Foxe's Book of Martyrs and his legacy continues through the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles. (Full article...)

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Ernest J. King

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... that Żeromski Park, the second-largest park in Szczecin, Poland, used to be a cemetery?
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In the news

Virat Kohli

In cricket, the T20 World Cup concludes with India defeating South Africa in the final (player of the final Virat Kohli pictured).
In Bolivia, troops led by Juan José Zúñiga storm the presidential palace in an attempted coup.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is released from prison as part of a U.S. plea bargain.
Protesters attack the Parliament Buildings in Nairobi, Kenya, leaving 19 people dead and at least 160 others injured.

On this day

July 2

James A. Garfield

626 – Li Shimin led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of Tang China.
1644 – First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the Battle of Marston Moor.
1724 – On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach led the first performance of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, based on the German Magnificat.
1881 – U.S. president James A. Garfield (pictured) was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
1964 – The Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the general public in the United States.

Walter Potter (b. 1835)
Erich Topp (b. 1914)
Joseph Fielding Smith (d. 1972)
Sam Hornish Jr. (b. 1979)

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Today's featured picture

The Canadian National Railway (CN) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. It is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning the country from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately 20,000 route miles (32,000 kilometres) of track. In the late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over railroads such as the Illinois Central and others. This photograph shows a CN EMD SD70M-2, SD75I and SD60F unit in the Canadian Rockies north of Jasper, Alberta.

Photograph credit: David Gubler

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