Events, Verisoph

1 March 1940 Franco's Spain represses Freemasonry 0 cit. Franco's regime passed the Law for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism in 1940, making membership a crime. Many Spanish Freemasons were imprisoned, exiled, or executed. politics / religion ●●

1941 Gershom Scholem founds academic Kabbalah studies 0 cit. With Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem established the scholarly study of Kabbalah as a serious field of history. His research reshaped how both scholars and the public understood the tradition. religion / science ●●●●

c. 1941 Parsons is initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis 0 cit. Parsons joined the Agape Lodge, the California branch of Aleister Crowley's occult order the Ordo Templi Orientis. He embraced Crowley's religion of Thelema and its motto, Do what thou wilt. religion ●●●

1941 Gershom Scholem revives the study of Kabbalah 0 cit. With Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem overturned the rationalist dismissal of Kabbalah and established it as a serious field of history. His scholarship restored the mystical tradition to the center of the Jewish story and reframed the long dialogue between reason and mysticism. religion / science ●●●

c. 1942 Parsons becomes leader of the Agape Lodge 0 cit. Parsons took over leadership of the Agape Lodge of the OTO after Wilfred Talbot Smith stepped aside. He ran its rituals from his home on South Orange Grove Avenue. religion ●●●

September 1943 Stalin Restores the Patriarchate 0 cit. During the war Stalin eased persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and allowed the election of a new patriarch, seeking wartime unity and legitimacy. The church remained closely watched and controlled by the state. politics / religion ●●●

c. 1943 Parsons turns his home into a bohemian occult commune, the Parsonage 0 cit. Parsons rented rooms in his large house to artists, writers and fellow occultists, creating a countercultural household known as the Parsonage. It became a hub for Thelemites and science fiction figures in wartime Pasadena. culture / religion ●●

1943 The Holocaust destroys Salonica's Jews 0 cit. Under German occupation the Jews of Salonica were deported to Auschwitz between March and August 1943, around fifty thousand people, and roughly nine in ten were murdered. Ladino-speaking communities across the Balkans were annihilated in the same years. One of the oldest and greatest Sephardic worlds was wiped out almost completely. religion / society / war ●●●

c. 1943 Mass Oathing Begins at Olenguruone 0 cit. To bind their community in resistance, the Olenguruone settlers took a unity oath, and crucially they extended it beyond adult men to women and children, breaking with the traditional Kikuyu practice reserved for elders. This mass oathing, used to enforce solidarity against eviction and government rules, is widely seen by historians as the direct forerunner of the Mau Mau oath that spread a decade later. When the settlers were finally evicted around 1949 and 1950, they carried the oath and its methods back into the crowded reserves. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1943 Elijah Masinde and Dini ya Msambwa 0 cit. Elijah Masinde was a Bukusu leader who founded the religious movement Dini ya Msambwa in the early 1940s in western Kenya. The movement mixed worship rooted in Bukusu tradition with open opposition to colonial rule, the kipande pass, and the loss of African land. The British banned it and jailed Masinde repeatedly, deporting him to Lamu in 1948 and once committing him to a mental hospital. After independence he was detained again for years and released in 1978. He died in 1987. politics / religion ●●

c. 1943 Elijah Masinde founds Dini ya Msambwa among the Bukusu 4 cit. Elijah Masinde, a Bukusu former footballer and prophet, founded Dini ya Msambwa, whose name means religion of the ancestors or spirits. The movement rejected Christian missions and British rule and revived traditional Luhya worship. It quickly spread beyond the Bukusu and alarmed the colonial administration. politics / religion ●●

1945 to 1989 The Church under communism 0 cit. Communist governments across Eastern Europe suppressed the Church, jailing clergy such as Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary and restricting worship. The Church became a center of resistance to state atheism. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1945 The Great Invocation and the UN 0 cit. Lucis Trust supporters promote a prayer called the Great Invocation and have long linked their work to UN ideals of peace and goodwill. The prayer is a Lucis Trust text, not a UN document, and the connection is one of shared vocabulary about world unity rather than official endorsement. politics / religion ●

c. August 1945 L. Ron Hubbard moves into the Parsonage 0 cit. Navy officer and pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard came to live at Parsons's house after the war. The two men became close friends and collaborators in Parsons's magical work. religion ●●●

January 1946 Parsons performs the Babalon Working with L. Ron Hubbard 0 cit. Parsons carried out a series of Thelemic sex magic rituals meant to invoke a goddess he called Babalon and produce a magical child. Hubbard took part as his scribe and psychic seer during the ceremonies. religion ●●●●

c. February 1946 Marjorie Cameron arrives and is identified as the Scarlet Woman 0 cit. Artist Marjorie Cameron appeared at the Parsonage during the ritual period, and Parsons believed she was the elemental woman he had summoned. She became his partner and later his wife. culture / religion ●●●

c. July 1946 Hubbard leaves with Parsons's savings and his partner Sara Northrup 0 cit. Parsons, Hubbard and Sara Northrup formed a company called Allied Enterprises to buy and resell yachts. Hubbard took much of Parsons's money and Northrup, whom he soon married, and a legal fight followed that cost Parsons most of his savings. religion ●●●●

1946 The Babalon Working 0 cit. Parsons and the future Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard perform the Babalon Working, a series of rituals meant to incarnate a goddess on earth. The strange episode links the birth of American rocketry to the occult and to Scientology. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1947 Oral Roberts and the healing revivals 0 cit. Oral Roberts led large tent healing revivals and pioneered religious television, later teaching a doctrine of seed-faith giving in which donations are expected to bring a greater return. He was a central figure in spreading prosperity and healing teaching across America. economy / religion ●●●

1947 Ajax cleanser is named after the Greek warrior Ajax 0 cit. Colgate-Palmolive launched its Ajax cleanser in 1947, naming it after Ajax, the powerful Greek warrior of the Trojan War, to suggest strength against dirt. economy / religion / war ●●

1947 "Mormonism and Masonry" published defending the restoration view 0 cit. Latter-day Saint author E. Cecil McGavin published "Mormonism and Masonry," one of the earliest book-length treatments of the relationship from within the Church. McGavin argued that any similarities between the endowment and Masonic ritual reflected the restoration of ancient temple ordinances rather than direct copying, an interpretation that would remain the Church's general position in later official statements. The book went through further editions in following years as the topic continued to draw interest from both Church members and outside historians. religion ●

c. 1 January 1947 Helen John placement launches Indian Placement program 0 cit. A Navajo teenager, Helen John, requested and received permission to live with a local Latter-day Saint family in Richfield, Utah, so she could attend school. Her informal placement became the template for what grew into the Church's Indian Student Placement Program, which placed Native American children with Latter-day Saint foster families during the school year. religion / society ●●

1947 Kibaki joins Mangu High School 1 cit. In 1947 Kibaki joined Holy Ghost College, later known as Mangu High School. Official accounts describe him as a standout student who passed six subjects with Grade 1 distinction in the 1950 Cambridge School Certificate examinations. Mangu made him part of the Catholic secondary-school elite that also produced Tom Mboya. religion / society ●●●

23 August 1948 Founding of the World Council of Churches 0 cit. Representatives of 147 churches from 44 countries meet in Amsterdam to found the World Council of Churches, the main worldwide body of the ecumenical movement, based in Geneva. diplomacy / religion ●●●

14 May 1948 Creation of the State of Israel 0 cit. Following the UN's 1947 partition plan for Palestine, David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel as the British mandate ends. War with neighboring Arab states begins at once, and the Arab-Israeli conflict becomes a defining fault line of the modern Middle East. politics / religion ●●●●

23 August 1948 World Council of Churches founded 0 cit. Delegates from 147 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox churches establish the World Council of Churches. It becomes the main institution of the modern ecumenical movement. religion ●●

1948 Atlas Van Lines is named for the Titan who bears the sky 0 cit. The American moving company, founded in Indiana in 1948, is named after Atlas, the Titan of Greek myth condemned to bear the heavens on his shoulders. The name suggests strength in carrying loads. economy / religion ●

28 October 1948 Star of David placed on the flag of the State of Israel 0 cit. The provisional government of Israel formally adopts a blue hexagram on a white field between two blue stripes as the national flag, cementing the Star of David as the central emblem of both Judaism and the modern Israeli state. politics / religion ●●

c. 1948 The Yiddish world ends and new centers rise 0 cit. The Holocaust destroyed the dense Yiddish-speaking civilization of Eastern Europe almost entirely, and Soviet repression finished off much of what remained. The surviving centers of Ashkenazi life shifted to the new State of Israel and to North America. There the descendants of the Rhineland and the shtetl rebuilt their communities, even as the old world and its everyday Yiddish faded into memory. culture / religion / society ●●●

c. February 1948 Malakisi affray leaves eleven dead and Dini ya Msambwa is banned 4 cit. In early 1948 a clash broke out at Malakisi between followers of Dini ya Msambwa and colonial police. Police opened fire and eleven Africans were killed. The colonial government proscribed the movement and Masinde was arrested and deported to Lamu. religion / war ●●

c. September 1949 Billy Graham launches his national crusades 0 cit. Evangelist Billy Graham drew large crowds at a Los Angeles revival that brought him national fame. His crusades and later broadcasts helped shape modern American evangelicalism. culture / religion ●●

1949 Garuda Indonesia is named for the divine bird of Hindu myth 0 cit. Indonesia's national airline, established in 1949, is named after Garuda, the divine bird that serves as the mount of Vishnu in Hindu mythology. Garuda also appears on the country's national emblem. economy / religion / technology ●●

c. 1949 The great migration to Israel 0 cit. After the founding of Israel in 1948, most of the surviving Sephardic and wider Middle Eastern Jewish communities left or were pushed out of the lands where they had lived for centuries. Hundreds of thousands moved to Israel from the Balkans, Turkey, and North Africa. In Israel the label Sephardi broadened to cover most Jews of Middle Eastern origin. politics / religion / society ●●●

1950 Founding of World Vision 0 cit. Evangelical missionary Bob Pierce founds World Vision, opening its first office in Portland, Oregon, to care for orphans of the Korean War. It became one of the largest Christian humanitarian organizations. diplomacy / religion / society ●●

c. 1950 Land reform and official atheism 0 cit. The new state redistributed land from landlords to peasants and asserted an officially atheist ideology. Religious institutions came under tight state control and much of their property was seized. religion / society ●●●●

c. 1950 Mission schools train the independence generation 0 cit. Mission schools that were built to spread Christianity ended up educating many of the nationalist leaders who later demanded independence. Literacy, printing, and Western learning gave colonized people tools to organize and argue against colonial rule. The mission thus left a double legacy: an instrument of cultural change that also equipped its own critics. politics / religion / society ●●

c. 1950 The Oath Spreads Across the Reserves 0 cit. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the unity oath spread rapidly out of Nairobi and the evicted squatter communities into the crowded Kikuyu reserves, binding hundreds of thousands to the cause of land and freedom. Militants administered it in secret, sometimes by persuasion and sometimes by force, and its rapid spread convinced the colonial state that a dangerous conspiracy was taking hold. The oath became the sharp line that divided the movement's supporters from the loyalists who refused it, setting Kikuyu against Kikuyu before the fighting began. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1950 The oath of unity spreads 0 cit. Around 1950 the muma wa uiguano, the oath of unity, spread widely through the Kikuyu reserves and Nairobi. The movement had no single name for itself, calling itself simply Muingi (the movement) or the oath of unity; Mau Mau was a label applied from outside. Taking the oath meant pledging to stand with fellow Kikuyu, to keep the movement's secrets, and to work for the return of the land. Administering the oath, ceremony by ceremony, was how the movement built its mass base. politics / religion / society ●●

c. April 1950 Kolloa Affray: Pokot followers of Lukas Pkech are killed in Baringo 0 cit. Dini ya Msambwa spread beyond the Bukusu to the Pokot, carried by the preacher Lukas Pkech after his escape from detention. On 24 April 1950 British forces confronted Pkech and his gathered followers at Kolloa in Baringo. The fighting killed Pkech, several colonial officers and a large number of Pokot, and the affray became one of the bloodiest episodes of the movement. religion / war ●●

12 December 1951 Founding of Caritas Internationalis 0 cit. National Catholic charities from thirteen countries hold a constitutive assembly in Rome, founding the confederation now known as Caritas Internationalis, one of the world's largest humanitarian networks. diplomacy / religion / society ●●

c. 1951 The Moderates and the Militants Part Ways 0 cit. By the early 1950s the African movement was pulling apart, with mission-educated Christian moderates and cautious chiefs on one side and the oath-bound trade unionists, ex-soldiers, and Forty Group militants on the other. The moderates preferred petitions, the Legislative Council, and gradual reform, while the militants had lost faith in constitutional methods and turned to the oath and direct action. This deepening split, running along the fault line of faith, land, and class, set the loyalists against the fighters well before the State of Emergency and the killing of Chief Waruhiu forced everyone to choose a side. politics / religion / society ●●●

1951 The Holy Office renews its warning about Rotary 0 cit. The Holy Office issued a fresh statement directing that clergy should not belong to Rotary and urging lay Catholics to weigh the earlier warnings. It reflected continued unease about the club's secular ethics and its perceived kinship with Freemasonry. The Church's stance softened in later decades, and Catholic membership in Rotary became common. religion ●

17 April 1952 National Day of Prayer established 0 cit. Congress created an annual National Day of Prayer and asked the president to set a date each year. It became part of the nation's public religious rituals. politics / religion ●●

1952 The UN Meditation Room is created 0 cit. The United Nations set aside a quiet room for meditation and reflection open to people of all faiths and none. Its existence is often cited in conspiracy claims, but a nondenominational quiet room is a common feature of many public institutions. politics / religion ●●

1952 Norman Vincent Peale's positive thinking 0 cit. Pastor Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking mixed Christian language with New Thought techniques of affirmation and visualization. It sold in the millions and helped make the mind-over-circumstances message respectable in mainstream churches. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1952 to c. 1967 Hubbard develops auditing, the E-meter and the Operating Thetan levels 0 cit. Over years Hubbard built out Scientology's core practices, including auditing sessions guided by a device called the E-meter and a graded ladder of advanced Operating Thetan levels. Adherents paid rising fees to progress up the levels. religion ●●●

1952 Parsons dies in a mysterious explosion 0 cit. Jack Parsons is killed at 37 in an explosion in his home laboratory, his death ruled an accident but debated ever since. A crater on the far side of the Moon is named for the rocketeer-magician. religion / science ●●

c. 1952 The Ritual Elements of the Oathing Ceremony 0 cit. Documented ceremonies drew on Kikuyu ritual forms, though organizers adapted and simplified them for mass use. Takers commonly passed several times through an arch of banana leaves, sugar cane, or maize stalks, held a ball of soil or a sacred stone, and swore while a goat was sacrificed and its blood or meat used to seal the vow. Some rites encircled the group with a goat's intestines and had takers sip a consecrated mixture as each clause was spoken. Elements varied by administrator and place, and the graded oaths grew more elaborate as commitment deepened. culture / religion ●●

c. 1952 The Mau Mau oath binds fighters through ritual 0 cit. In the Mau Mau revolt, Kikuyu fighters were bound to the cause through traditional oathing rites that carried heavy spiritual weight and drew on the authority of the ancestors and the land. The oath turned personal grievance over stolen land into a sacred obligation. The practice is treated in depth in the Mau Mau and Kenya threads and is noted here only as one more case of ritual binding resistance. politics / religion / war ●●

c. 1952 Mission Christians become loyalists during Mau Mau 0 cit. During the Mau Mau revolt, many mission-educated Kikuyu Christians refused to take the movement's oaths and sided with the colonial government as home guards and officials. Shaped by mission schooling and the East African Revival, this loyalist class was rewarded with land and office after the emergency. Their choice hardened a lasting divide within Kikuyu society between former fighters and loyalists. The date marks the start of the emergency, so it is approximate. politics / religion / war ●●

c. July 1952 The batuni warrior oath 0 cit. By mid-1952 a second, more binding oath appeared, the batuni oath, named from the English word platoon. Where the unity oath pledged solidarity, the batuni oath committed the taker to fight and, if ordered, to kill. It was also called muma wa ngero, the oath for killing, and those who took it agreed it was far stronger than the first. Only those ready for armed action took it, which marked a clear step from protest toward war. politics / religion / war ●●

c. 1952 The vows of the batuni oath 0 cit. Accounts of the batuni oath describe a set of hard vows, each sealed with the formula that the oath itself would kill anyone who broke it. Takers swore to fight for the land, to steal weapons and goods from Europeans when told to, to report and never betray fellow members, and to refuse bribes. One recorded clause ran, "if I am sent to bring the head of an enemy and I fail to do so, may this oath kill me." The vows bound the fighter to obey orders on pain of the oath's own curse. religion / war ●●

c. 1952 The oath ceremony 0 cit. The ceremony usually took place at night in a hut or compound, led by an oath administrator. The taker passed through an arch made of banana leaves and sugarcane, often seven times, while holding wet soil or a ball of moist earth against the stomach. A goat was sacrificed, and its blood and meat were used to seal the vows, echoing the old sacrificial rites. Each vow ended with the promise that the oath would kill the taker if it was broken. culture / religion / war ●●

c. 1952 Louis Leakey as oath interpreter 0 cit. The archaeologist Louis Leakey, raised among the Kikuyu and a fluent speaker, presented himself as the expert who could explain the oath to the government. He published Mau Mau and the Kikuyu in 1952 and Defeating Mau Mau in 1954, arguing that the oath was a perversion of Kikuyu tradition that could be countered on its own ritual ground. His role was contested then and now, since he served as an interpreter in court cases and his readings suited the government's aim of isolating the movement from legitimate Kikuyu grievance. Historians treat Leakey as a key but partisan interpreter, not a neutral authority. culture / politics / religion ●●

2 June 1953 Elizabeth II crowned and sworn to defend the Protestant faith 0 cit. At her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II took an oath to maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the Christian gospel, and to preserve the settlement of the Church of England. She was anointed and crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, reaffirming the monarch's dual role as head of state and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The ceremony has been broadly unchanged in structure since medieval times. religion ●●

c. 1953 Christianity, the Revival, and the Loyalist Base 0 cit. Much of the loyalist core came from mission-educated Christians and the East African Revival, the athomi or readers who rejected the Mau Mau oath as pagan and un-Christian. Refusing the oath marked a person as loyal and opened access to colonial patronage, schooling, and safety. Faith, class, and collaboration overlapped, and the churches gave the loyalist cause a moral language that set it against the oath-bound forest fighters. religion / society ●●

c. 1953 Binding by transgression, and the colonial propaganda 0 cit. Later and more advanced oaths, taken by a smaller core, are documented to have included acts meant to bind people by making them cross a moral line, so that having done the forbidden they could not turn back. Colonial officials, settler newspapers, and the government's own 1960 Corfield Report seized on this and described the oaths as "bestial" and sexually depraved, painting the whole movement as a descent into savagery. Scholars such as Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale treat these lurid descriptions as wartime propaganda meant to justify harsh repression, not as a reliable record of practice. The honest account keeps both facts: some oaths used transgression to bind, and the colonial state greatly exaggerated this to serve its own ends. politics / religion / war ●●

2 July 1954 The Johnson Amendment limits church politics 0 cit. A change to the tax code barred tax-exempt groups, including churches, from endorsing political candidates. The rule shaped how religious bodies engage in elections. politics / religion ●●

14 June 1954 Under God added to the Pledge of Allegiance 0 cit. Congress inserted the words under God into the Pledge of Allegiance during the Cold War. The change tied national identity more closely to religious faith. politics / religion ●●●

February 1954 L. Ron Hubbard founds the Church of Scientology 0 cit. Hubbard reframed his Dianetics teachings as a religion and established the first Church of Scientology. Presenting the work as a faith gave it new legal and financial footing. religion ●●●●

1954 Gerald Gardner launches modern Wicca 0 cit. Gerald Gardner presented Wicca as a modern nature religion drawing on old pagan imagery, a goddess and a horned god, and the wheel of seasonal festivals. It grew into the largest strand of modern paganism. religion / society ●●

1954 Gardner founds modern Wicca 0 cit. Gerald Gardner publicly launches Wicca, a modern religion of witchcraft drawing on folklore, ceremonial magic, and nature-worship. It became the seed of the worldwide Neopagan movement. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1954 Wicca adopts the upright pentagram as a sacred symbol 0 cit. Gerald Gardner's published Wiccan tradition uses the upright, single-point-up pentagram to represent the five classical elements (earth, air, fire, water, spirit) crowned by spirit at the top. In Wicca and much of modern Paganism the upright pentagram denotes this elemental balance and carries no Satanic connotation; inversion of the same symbol is the marker ceremonial magicians and some Satanist groups use for different, contested meanings. culture / religion ●●

c. 1 July 1954 Indian Student Placement Program formally established 0 cit. The Church formally organized the Indian Student Placement Program under its Social Services and Relief Society structure. The program was rooted in the Church's Lamanite doctrine, the teaching that Native Americans were descendants of Book of Mormon peoples who would be blessed and "become white and delightsome" through conversion and assimilation; participating children lived with Latter-day Saint families and attended predominantly white schools. religion / society ●●●

c. 1954 Cleansing and De-oathing Ceremonies 0 cit. Believing the oath held people in a supernatural grip, the administration and its allies promoted cleansing rites to undo it. Mission churches, loyalist elders, and government-backed practitioners, among them the archaeologist and Kikuyu scholar Louis Leakey, ran ceremonies in which people confessed their oaths and were ritually purified to release them from the vow. Cleansing was cast as a path back to loyalty and Christianity and was often a condition of trust or release. It formed one front of a wider psychological campaign fought over the oath. religion / war ●●

1954 Banning and final proscription of the Mumbo cult 0 cit. The colonial government harassed and banned the Mumbo cult for decades before formally proscribing it in 1954, at the height of the Mau Mau emergency. Officials treated its rejection of Christianity, taxes, and European rule as a standing threat. Its long survival under pressure shows how a prophetic movement rooted in local belief could outlast repeated attempts to stamp it out. politics / religion / society ●

c. 1954 Oath-cleansing and de-oathing ceremonies 0 cit. Because Kikuyu belief held that an oath bound a person for life, the government and some missions organized cleansing ceremonies to "de-oath" those who had sworn. These rites, one called gutahiko, had the taker symbolically vomit up the Mau Mau oath, and some used the githathi stone to reverse it, with Leakey and cooperating elders involved. There was no traditional practice of undoing an oath, so the cleansings were in effect newly invented rituals. They were meant to pull ordinary people away from the movement and to mark loyalty to the government. politics / religion / society ●●

30 July 1956 In God We Trust becomes the national motto 0 cit. Congress adopted In God We Trust as the official national motto, replacing the earlier unofficial E Pluribus Unum. The motto was soon required on all paper currency. politics / religion ●●●

1956 Vulcan Materials is named for the Roman god of the forge 0 cit. Vulcan Materials, the U.S. construction-aggregates company formed in 1956, is named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge. The name reflects the iron heritage of Birmingham, Alabama. economy / religion ●

1957 Hammarskjold redesigns the Meditation Room 0 cit. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, a devout and reflective man, oversaw the 1957 redesign of the UN Meditation Room around a block of iron ore and an abstract mural, deliberately keeping it free of any single religion's symbols. The room reflects his personal spirituality, not an official UN faith. politics / religion ●●

1958 NASA names its programs after the ancient gods 0 cit. NASA drew its program names from Greco-Roman mythology: Mercury the messenger, Gemini the twins, Apollo the god of the sun and prophecy, and later Artemis (Apollo's twin) for the return to the Moon, plus Orion, Juno, and the Saturn and Atlas and Titan rockets. The oldest gods still name the newest machines. culture / religion / science ●●●

c. 1960 Modern decline of Freemasonry 0 cit. American Freemasonry peaked at about four million members in the late 1950s and has fallen steadily since, a pattern echoed in Britain and Europe. Aging membership and falling interest in fraternal groups drove the drop. religion / society ●●●

c. 1960 Mervin B. Hogan documents Nauvoo Masonic records 0 cit. Mervin B. Hogan, a Latter-day Saint and active Freemason, spent decades researching and publishing detailed studies of the Nauvoo Masonic lodges using original lodge minutes and Grand Lodge correspondence. His work, produced from within both traditions, became a key primary-source basis for later historians examining the documented links between early Mormon leadership and Freemasonry, regardless of their conclusions about what the connection meant. religion ●

c. 1961 Grand Lodge of Southern Africa established 0 cit. Freemasonry in southern Africa moved toward local self-government, with a Grand Lodge of Southern Africa formed in the 1960s from lodges once run from Europe. It reflected the wider spread of the craft beyond its British base. religion / society ●●

c. 1961 Founding of the Islamic University of Medina 0 cit. Saudi Arabia founded a university to train religious scholars and preachers, admitting many foreign students. Graduates carried Salafi teaching back to their home countries. religion / society ●●●

18 May 1962 Founding of the Muslim World League 0 cit. An Islamic conference in Mecca resolves to found the Muslim World League, a Saudi-based body to propagate Islam and coordinate Islamic organizations worldwide. diplomacy / religion ●●

11 October 1962 to 1965 Second Vatican Council 0 cit. Pope John XXIII opens a council that modernizes Catholic practice, allowing Mass in local languages and opening dialogue with other faiths. Vatican II is the most sweeping reform of Catholicism since Trent. religion ●●●●

25 June 1962 Engel v. Vitale bars official school prayer 0 cit. The Supreme Court ruled that official prayers in public schools violated the establishment clause. The decision became a lasting flashpoint over religion in public life. politics / religion ●●●

11 October 1962 to 1965 Second Vatican Council modernizes the Church 0 cit. The council reformed Catholic worship and teaching, allowed Mass in local languages, and opened dialogue with other faiths and the modern world. It was the most far reaching change in the Church in centuries. culture / religion / society ●●●●●

1962 Marvel's Thor brings the Norse gods to the modern world 0 cit. Marvel Comics reinvents Thor as a superhero, and the later films make Odin, Loki, and Asgard household names for a global audience. The Norse gods reach more people today than at any time since the Viking Age. culture / religion ●●

1963 Bacchus energy tonic is named for the Roman god of wine 0 cit. Dong-A Pharmaceutical of South Korea launched its Bacchus tonic in 1963, named after Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. culture / economy / religion ●

1963 The debate over Pius XII and the Holocaust contested 0 cit. After the war, and especially after a 1963 play attacked the pope's wartime record, historians divided sharply over Pius XII. Critics argue he failed to openly condemn the genocide of Europe's Jews, while defenders point to Vatican-directed efforts to shelter Jews in Rome and elsewhere. The Vatican opened his archives in 2020, and scholars continue to disagree. politics / religion / war ●●

c. 1963 Denominational loyalties outlast the colony 0 cit. The mission carve-up left denominational identities braided into regional and ethnic ones, and they outlived colonial rule. Church affiliation still tracks region in much of Kenya, and the churches that competed for souls became rival power blocs in independent politics. Historians debate how far the missions deliberately divided and how far comity was simply practical. politics / religion / society ●●

July 1965 Founding of the Kabbalah Centre 0 cit. Philip Berg founded the organization that became the Kabbalah Centre, aiming to make Kabbalistic teaching available to a broad audience regardless of background. Its universalized approach drew both wide interest and criticism from traditional scholars. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1965 The disconnection policy formalizes cutting off critics and doubters 0 cit. Scientology adopted disconnection, requiring members to sever ties with anyone labeled a suppressive person, including family. The policy has divided many families of members. religion ●●●

c. 1965 Both networks outlast empire 0 cit. After independence, both churches and Masonic lodges founded in the colonial era remained as institutions, now often led by local members. Christian denominations kept large followings and ran schools and hospitals, while lodges survived as social and charitable bodies. The mission and the lodge, spread with European expansion, became permanent features of post-colonial society. religion / society ●

28 October 1965 Nostra Aetate repudiates the deicide charge 0 cit. On 28 October 1965 the Second Vatican Council promulgated Nostra Aetate, which rejected the idea that the Jewish people as a whole were collectively guilty of the death of Christ and condemned antisemitism and hatred against Jews. It marked a decisive break with the deicide accusation the Church had carried for centuries. The reversal came only two decades after the Holocaust. politics / religion / society ●●●●

1966 Cultural Revolution 0 cit. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to purge rivals and revive radical ideology. A decade of political turmoil followed, with mass persecution and attacks on traditional culture and religion. culture / religion / society ●●●●●

1966 Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan 0 cit. Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan and later publishes the Satanic Bible, turning a theatrical, atheistic Satanism into a registered religion. It marked the arrival of the occult into mainstream American pop culture. culture / religion ●●

1966 Church of Satan adopts the inverted pentagram with goat head, the Sigil of Baphomet 0 cit. Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan and adopts the 'Sigil of Baphomet': a goat's head inscribed in an inverted pentagram, surrounded by Hebrew letters spelling Leviathan, as its official emblem. This is the origin of the pentagram-with-goat-head as a modern Satanist symbol, a deliberate homage to Eliphas Levi's 1856 drawing. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1967 Bellah names American civil religion 0 cit. Sociologist Robert Bellah described a shared civil religion that gave sacred meaning to national symbols and rituals. The idea named the way politics and faith blend in American public life. religion / society ●●

1967 Kenneth Copeland builds a prosperity empire 0 cit. A student of Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland built a global media ministry teaching that faith-filled words unlock wealth and health. He became one of the wealthiest and most prominent prosperity preachers, and his private jets drew wide criticism. economy / religion ●●●

1967 Hubbard goes to sea and founds the Sea Organization 0 cit. Hubbard created the Sea Org, an elite corps of staff who signed symbolic billion-year commitments and ran the church from a small fleet of ships. It became the top administrative tier of Scientology. religion ●●●

February 1968 The Beatles, the Maharishi and Transcendental Meditation 0 cit. The Beatles studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, giving Transcendental Meditation worldwide attention. The episode helped turn Eastern meditation into a mass Western interest and marked a high point of the 1960s spiritual counterculture. culture / religion ●●●

25 September 1969 Founding of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation 0 cit. Muslim states meeting in Rabat after an arson attack on the al-Aqsa Mosque found the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the largest grouping of Muslim-majority countries. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●

1969 Scientology opens the Celebrity Centre to recruit public figures 0 cit. The church founded the Celebrity Centre to attract and serve actors, musicians and other prominent people. Famous members became a central part of Scientology's public image. culture / religion ●●

1969 Janus funds are named for the two-faced Roman god 0 cit. The Janus mutual funds, founded in Denver in 1969, are named after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings, gates, and transitions. economy / religion ●

15 December 1969 First Presidency reaffirms priesthood ban amid civil rights era 0 cit. Facing pressure amid the civil rights movement, the First Presidency under David O. McKay issued a statement reaffirming the priesthood ban, describing it as a matter of religious doctrine rather than civil rights and citing pre-mortal existence as an explanation for the restriction. It was published in the Church magazine Improvement Era in February 1970. The Church's 2013 "Race and the Priesthood" essay later disavowed this pre-mortal explanation. politics / religion ●●

c. 1970 Tikkun olam as a modern ethic of social repair 0 cit. The Lurianic idea of repairing the world was broadened in modern Judaism into a call for social justice and ethical action. The phrase tikkun olam became a widely used expression of Jewish social values. religion / society ●●●

1970 Sri Chinmoy leads meditations at the UN 0 cit. Indian spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy began leading a voluntary meditation group for UN staff and delegates that met for decades. It was a staff interest group, not an official organ of the United Nations. politics / religion ●●