Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

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Date 1927, descending — sort earliest first

date event tags firsts
1927 10 - 11 Nov The third convention for amity in inter-racial relations in Washington was held in the Mt. Pleasant Congregational Church. [BW2p285; SYH146] Race (general); Race (general): Race amity; Race Unity; Conferences, Race Amity; Washington, DC, USA; USA
1927 Nov "Muḥammad-'Alí and Majdiddin [his cousin] has sent a message requesting us to repair the roof which may collapse at any time. He has been told emphatically that we shall not proceed with any repair unless and until they evacuate the entire building." [PP231] Covenant-breakers; Muhammad-`Alí; Majdid-Din; Bahji, Israel
1927 Oct The first issue of the monthy called World Unity Magazine. Its editors were John Herman Randall, John Herman Randall Jr. and Horace Holley. The concluding volume of the magazine stated its unique character proceeded from the outlook of its founders, who "realized the inter-dependence of religion, science and sociology in the movements simultaneously destroying the past and forming a new era in human history." During its last years of publication, it was openly a Bahá'í journal. [The Cause of Universal Peace]
  • All subsequent issues are available at Baha'i Works.
  • In 1935 it was decided to merge World Unity with another publication, Star of the West (renamed The Bahá'í Magazine in its later volumes) to become a new entity, World Order. This magazine was published from 1935 to 1949, revived in 1966, and ran until 2007. Like World Unity, its erudite articles covered a wide range of topics aimed at the educated public, but it was unmistakably a Bahá'í organ under the auspices of the US National Spiritual Assembly and never acquired as broad a readership as World Unity. [BN No 90 Mar 1935 p8]
    		•  World Unity magazine; Conferences, World unity; John Herman Randall Sr; John Herman Randall Jr; Horace Holley; New York, USA; USA
    1927 (Mid-Oct) Shoghi Effendi announced the defection of 'Abdu'l-Husayn Ávarih (Abd al-Hosayn Ayati). He had been a very successful teacher and the author of a book on the history of the Faith but opposed Shoghi Effendi's efforts to build the Administrative Order. He was insistent that the Universal House of Justice be formed at that time. He was denounced by the believers in Egypt and Iran. [SETPE1p149, BA137-139, Ruhi8.2-20, CoC294-296; MBW53; PP120; ; BKC118-120]
  • After his defection he became a Muslim and an opponent of the Bahá'í Faith. He returned to Tehran and spent the rest of his life as a secondary school teacher. During this period he wrote many works of poetry and prose, including Kashf al-Hial, a three volume work refuting the Bahá'í Faith. [Wikipedia]
  • See message from Shoghi Effendi regarding the civil rights of Avarih.
    		• Covenant-breakers; `Abdu'l-Husayn Ávárih; Avarih; Haifa, Israel
    1927 Oct Shoghi Effendi entrusted Dr William Slater and his wife Ida Slater, who were visiting Haifa on a 19-day pilgrimage, with carpets from the Shrines of the Báb and 'Abdu'l-Bahá for the House of Worship in Chicago. [SETPE1p149] William Slater; Ida Slater; Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Wilmette; Báb, Shrine of; Carpets; Gifts; Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Haifa, Israel; Wilmette, IL; USA
    1927 (Mid-Oct to 1 Nov) Shoghi Effendi retired to the mountains of Switzerland to rest and re-gain his strength. (SETPE1p150, DND20] Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Shoghi Effendi, Travels of; Switzerland
    1927 13 Sep Dr George Augur, (b. 1 Oct 1853 New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA d. 13 Sep 1927 Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA), Disciple of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, passed away in Hawaii. He was buried in the O'ahu Cemetery in Honolulu. [SBR198]
  • Find a grave
  • For the story of his life see SBR187–98.
    		• George Augur; Disciples of `Abdu'l-Bahá; In Memoriam; Honolulu; Hawaii, USA
    1927 9 Sep - 2 Dec Leonora Holsapple (later Armstrong) made a teaching trip through Latin America and the Caribbean, becoming the first Bahá'í to visit Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Curaçao, Trinidad (2–12 Oct), the Guianas (29 Oct), Barbados (Dec) and several islands in the Antilles group. Leonora Holsapple Armstrong; Latin USA; Caribbean first Bahá’í to visit Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Curaçao, Trinidad, the Guianas, Barbados and several islands in Antilles group
    1927 1 Aug Geyserville Bahá'í Summer School, the first American Bahá'í summer school, was established on property in California donated by John Bosch. It was to operate until 1973 when a new road project divided the property. The land was sold and the funds used to purchase land in the mountains above the coastal town of Santa Cruz. The new school was named In honour of John and Louise Bosch. [BBD87; BW10:180; GPB340, Bosch]
  • BW5:28–9 says this was the second Bahá'í summer school in America but Shoghi Effendi indicates in GPB340 that Green Acre is formally established as a Bahá'í summer school in 1929.
    		•  Summer schools; - Bahá'í schools (conference centres); First summer and winter schools; John Bosch; Green Acre, Eliot, ME; Geyserville; California, USA; USA first American Bahá’í summer school
    1927 (Summer) The first Race Amity Conference was held in Green Acre. It was organized by Louis Gregory, Agnes Parsons, Dr Zia Bagdadi, Alain Locke, and Pauline Hannen. [GAP118, SYH146] Race (general): Race amity; Louis G. Gregory; Agnes Parsons; Zia Bagdadi; Alain Locke; Pauline Hannen; Green Acre, Eliot, ME
    1927 7 Jul Mr. Mountfort Mills received a cable from Shoghi Effendi through the Greatest Holy Leaf suggesting the American Assemblies send cables to His Excellency the High Commissioner in Baghdad, Iraq urging that the houses belonging to the Bahá'ís be restored to their rightful owners. [Highlights of the First 40 Years of the Bahá'í Faith in New York, City of the Covenant, 1892-1932 by Hussein Ahdieh p26] House of Bahá'u'lláh (Baghdad); New York, USA; Baghdad, Iraq
    1927 19 Jun Karbalá'í Asadu'lláh-i-Saqat-furúsh was martyred in Kirmán, Iran. [BW18:388] Persecution, Iran; - Persecution, Deaths; - Persecution; Kirman, Iran; Iran
    1927 Jun Shoghi Effendi left Palestine destined for Switzerland in the company of his sister. [Ambassador at the Court Chapter 8] Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Shoghi Effendi, Travels of; Switzerland
    1927 May The funeral of a believer resident in the Holy Land, Mírá Moshen Afnán, was the first entirely Bahá'í funeral to take place in Palestine showing the strong independence of the Faith. [SETPE1p147] Mira Moshen Afnan; Funeral; Haifa, Israel; Palestine; Firsts, other first entirely Bahá'í funeral to take place in Palestine
    1927 May The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada drew up and published a 'Declaration of Trust' and 'By-laws of the National Spiritual Assembly'. [BW2:89, BW10:180]
  • For text see BW2:90–8.
  • The Guardian described it as the Bahá'í 'national constitution' heralding 'the formation of the constitution of the future Bahá'í World Community'. [GPB335; PP302–3]
  • The drafting was largely the work of Horace Holley with assistance from the lawyer Mountfort Mills. [SBR234]
  • In subsequent years the National Assemblies of India and Burma, of Egypt, Iraq, Persian and the British Isles all adopted this example almost verbatim. [UD101, BA134-5, SETPE1p145-6]
    		•  National Spiritual Assembly; Horace Holley; Mountfort Mills; Constitutions (Bahá'í); By-laws; Recognition (legal); Firsts, other; USA; Canada The first document of this sort to establish a clear legal basis for the National Spiritual Assembly
    1927 29 Apr - 1 May The third National Convention of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada was held at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, the hotel where 'Abdu'l-Bahá stayed during His visit in 1912. [Bahá'í News No. 17 April, 1927]
  • It was attended by 32 of the 95 elected delegates, others voting "by wire".
  • Those elected to the National Spiritual Assembly were: Allen McDaniel, chairman; Roy C. Wilhelm, vice-chairman; Horace Holley, secretary; Carl Scheffler, treasurer: Mesdames Florence R. Moron, May Maxwell and Amelia Collins, Messrs. Alfred E. Lunt and Louis G. Gregory. This reference contains a very complete report of the Convention including letters from the Guardian. [BN No 18 June 1927 p2-9]
  • See FMH41-42.
  • A major subject of which was race relations. Edwina Powell spoke on the subject, as she had been asked by Shoghi Effendi. In her address, Sadie Oglesby recalled her conversations with Shoghi Effendi on the subject of race. [TMW178–80]
    		•  Conventions, National; Allen McDaniel; Roy C. Wilhelm; Horace Holley; Carl Scheffler; Florence R. Moron; May Maxwell (Bolles); Amelia Collins; Alfred Lunt; Louis G. Gregory; Edwina Powell; Sadie Oglesby; Montreal, QC; Quebec, Canada; Canada; USA
    1927 Apr-May Martha Root journeyed through the Baltic States and become the first Bahá'í to visit Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (2 May). [MR272–4] Martha Root; Baltic States; Latvia; Lithuania; Estonia first Bahá’í to visit Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
    1927 29 Apr The British delegates, at their first National Convention, elected ten members because there were an equal number of votes for ninth and tenth places. [EJR253; UD70–1]
  • One of the members was a Rev. Biggs. [EJR253; UD71]
  • Shoghi Effendi wrote on 13 May recommending that next year the number of members be strictly confined to nine. In an earlier letter written on his behalf he explained that all of the delegates were to choose nine members of the National Assembly from all of those eligible. Prior to that time the understanding was that, for example, the London delegates would vote for a proportional number of persons from the London area, the Manchester delegates would choose a number of members based on their proportion of the total Bahá'í population. [EJR253; UD70, SETEP1p140]
    		•  National Spiritual Assembly; National Spiritual Assembly, election of; Conventions, National; Shoghi Effendi, Life of; First conventions; United Kingdom First National Convention of the United Kingdom
    1927 8 - 10 Apr The second conference for racial amity in Washington was held at the Mt Pleasant Congregational Church with the cooperation and participation of other like-minded groups and persons. [BW2p284]
  • Members of the Race Amity committee were Louis Gregory; Agnes Parsons, Sia Baghdad, Alain Locke and Pauline Hannen. [SYH146]
  • Other conferences were held inNew York state, in Portsmouth, NewHampshire, with monthly amity meetings in Boston and a second one in Washington in November. [SYH146]
    		•  Race (general); Race (general): Race amity; Race Unity; Conferences, Race Amity; Washington, DC, USA; USA
    1927 27 Mar Martha Root left Shanghai for Hong Kong. At the end of May she sailed for Australia and New Zealand. During her stay in Hong Kong she made a trip to mainland China visiting Guangzhou and made another sortie to Saigon and Cambodia. [P35] Martha Root; Shanghai, China; Hong Kong; Saigon, Vietnam; Cambodia; Laos
    1927 25 Mar Áqá 'Abdu'l-'A'zím, Amínu'l-'Ulamá' was martyred in Ardibíl, Iran, by the order of the mujtahid. [BW18:388] Persecution, Iran; - Persecution, Deaths; - Persecution; Ardibil; Iran
    1927 11 Mar Sadie Oglesby and her daughter Bertha Parvine arrived in Haifa, the first black American women to make the pilgrimage. [TMW173, 206, SETPE1p141-145] Pilgrims; First pilgrims; Haifa, Israel first black American women to make pilgrimage
    1927 Mar Shoghi Effendi retranslated the Hidden Words.
  • He was assisted by George Townshend and Ethel Rosenberg, the 'English friends' mentioned on the title page. [EJR246–7, 253–6; GT109, SETPE1p126]
  • This was to be the start of an 18 year relationship of collaboration between Shoghi Effendi and George Townshend in the translation of the Writings. As well as Hidden Words, he worked on Kitáb-i-Íqán, The Dawn-Breakers, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, God Passes By and by suggesting titles and writing introductions for The Dawn-Breakers and God Passes By. [SETPE1p127]
    		•  Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Shoghi Effendi, Translations by; Translation; Kalimat-i-Maknunih (Hidden Words); George Townshend; Ethel Rosenberg; * Publications; Shoghi Effendi, Basic timeline; - Basic timeline, Expanded; Shoghi Effendi, Works of; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1927 Jan (Towards end of the month) Chicago held its first Race Amity Conference. Louis Gregory spoke. [SYH147] Race (general): Race amity; Louis G. Gregory; Chicago, IL
    1927 13–16 Jan A World Unity Conference was held in Dayton, Ohio, one of many such conferences to be held in the year in major cities of the United States. [TMW159, 165]
  • See also The Babi and Bahá'í Religions: An Annotated Bibliography, section 'conference listing'.
    		•  Conferences, Unity; Dayton; Ohio, USA; USA
    1927 8 Jan The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed seven people to a National Race Unity Committee. [SBR94; TMW166]
  • For the functions and challenges faced by the committee see TMW165–72.
    		•  National Spiritual Assembly; Race (general); Race Unity; Race (general): Race amity; USA; Canada
    1927 (In the year) Martha Root gave a talk to the International Esperanto Conference in the Free City of Danzig*. [SYH159]

    *The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; Kashubian: Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. [Wikipedia]

    		 Esperanto; Martha Root; The Free City of Danzig
    1927 (In the year) Leonora Armstrong was the first Bahá'í to visit and speak about the Bahá'í Faith in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Trinidad, Barbados, Haiti, British Guiana and Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). [Biographical Profile] Travel Teaching; Leonora Holsapple Armstrong; Colombia; Venezuela; Ecuador; Trinidad and Tobago; Barbados; Haiti; British Guiana; Suriname the first Bahá'í to visit and speak about the Bahá'í Faith in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Trinidad, Barbados, Haiti, British Guiana and Suriname.
    1927 (In the year) Abu'l-Qásim Faizi, a 19-year-old student who had attended the Tarbiyát School in Tehran but was now enrolled at the American University at Beirut, visited Haifa to meet Shoghi Effendi. Like Hasan Balyuzi before him, he was immediately possessed by a great desire to serve him. [SETPE1p146-7] Abu'l-Qasim Faizi; Tarbiyat School, Tihran; American University of Beirut; Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Haifa, Israel; Tehran, Iran; Iran; Beirut, Lebanon; Lebanon
    1927 (In the year) The Baghdád believers took photographs of the cave in the Sargul Mountain near Sulaymáníyyih where Bahá'u'lláh spent two years in solitude. [BW2Surveyp.33, SETPE1p141] Photography; Caves; Mountains; Sar Galu Mountain (Sargul); Bahá'u'lláh, Life of; Baghdad, Iraq; Sulaymaniyyih, Iraq; Kurdistan; Iraq

    Try also a shorter date like 192

    try also the Chronology Canada — 1927 or 192

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