TODAY IN HISTORY: 6th January

6th January 1976: The Federal Military Government of Nigeria decrees that the Miracle Centre of Church of God Mission International in Benin City, Edo State of Nigeria will be demolished. On the 11th of January 1976, ‘Pastor’ Idahosa announced that the ‘Miracle Centre will not go down, those who desire its fall will go down.’ On the 13th of February 1976, the Military Head of State at the time (General Murtala Ramat Mohammed) was murdered in a coup. The Miracle Centre is still standing today. 

6th January 2002: Reverend Sam Oye held the first Sunday ‘morning fellowship’ of what will become The Transforming Church today in the living room of a Senior Officer in one of the Military Barracks in Abuja, Nigeria. 

6th January 2014:  Pastor Rotimi Obajimi, who served as a pastor under the Redeemed Christian Church of God in a village in Borno State of Nigeria was abducted on his way to Maiduguri by Boko Haram insurgents. He regained his freedom on the 7th of October 2014 after a heavy downpour forced the terrorists to flee and abandon their captives in the Sambisa Forest. 

6th January 1850: Charles H. Spurgeon converts to Christianity after a vision in a Methodist Chapel. Charles Spurgeon later became one of the greatest preachers of all time. 

6th January 1929: Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta, West Bengal, India, to begin her work of charity among India’s poorest and diseased people.

6th January 1884:  Gregor Mendel goes to be with the Lord. He was an Augustinian Monk who was the founder of the Science of Genetics.

6th January 2013: The Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja holds a Thanksgiving Mass and Reception to celebrate the elevation of John Cardinal Onaiyekan to the status of Cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI and also mark the 30th anniversary of his episcopal ordination. Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan is the fourth Nigerian to be elevated to the status of Cardinal in the Catholic Church.

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