November 12, 1035: Canute the Great, Danish king since 1016, dies at age 41. The often ruthless king had restored churches and monasteries throughout his kingdom and built several new ones.

November 12, 1836: Charles Simeon, the Church of England's most famous evangelical clergyman, dies.

November 14, 565: Roman Emperor Justinian dies at 82. During his reign, he reunited the Eastern and Western empires politically and religiously, erected several new basilicas in Constantinople, and created the Justinian Code, which greatly influenced the development of canon law in the Middle Ages.

November 14, 1741: English revivalist George Whitefield marries Elizabeth Burnell.

November 14, 1976: The Plains (Ga.) Baptist Church, where then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter was a member, votes to permit blacks to attend.

November 14, 1990: British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge dies at 87. After editorial stints at the Manchester Guardian and Punch and years as a BBC commentator, the cynical and licentious Muggeridge quietly converted to Christianity. It was his reporting on Mother Teresa that first brought her to the public's attention.

November 16, 1621: The Papal Chancery adopts January as the beginning of the calendar year, instead of March.

November 16, 1855: Scottish missionary-explorer David Livingstone first sees and names Victoria Falls (in modern Zimbabwe) during his first missionary journey though Africa.

November 17, 3 B.C.: According to early church father Clement of Alexandria (c.155-c.220), Jesus was born on this date.

November 17, 270 (traditional date): Gregory Thaumaturgus ("The Wonder Worker"), a well-loved bishop in Pontus and the author of the first Christian biography (on Origen) dies. A legend, from a generation later, about the Virgin Mary visiting him is the first account of a Marian apparition.

November 17, 1558: Elizabeth I's accession to the English throne leads to the re-establishment of the Church of England.

November 18, 1095: Pope Urban II opens the Council of Clermont to reform the Church and to plan the First Crusade. The 200 bishops attending the council decreed that those traveling to Jerusalem would be granted a plenary indulgence.

November 18, 1302: Pope Boniface VIII publishes "Unam Sanctam," declaring there is "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" outside of which there is "neither salvation nor remission of sins." Emphasizing the pope's position as Supreme Head of the Church, it also demanded that temporal powers subjugate themselves to spiritual ones.

November 18, 1874: The Women's Christian Temperance Union is founded in Cleveland. Claiming the power of the Holy Spirit, Protestant members would march into saloons and demand they be closed. It was the largest temperance organization and the largest women's organization in the U.S. before 1900.