On this day...November 19

CEBU, Philippines - In 1831, the last of the backwoods president, James Abram Garfield, was born in a log cabin in Ohio. Fatherless, he helped to run the family farm, worked as a canal-boat tow boy, and survived 14 “almost miraculous escapes from drowning.” He paid his own education and was distinguished for bravery in the Civil War Battle of Chikamanga. After an unbroken 17 years in Congress, and dubious of “evil effects of Presidential fever,” he won the 1880 presidential election by a narrow margin. In his first weeks in office he received a number of threatening letters but dismissed them, noting, “Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning, and it is best not to worry about either.” Six months later he was dead – killed by an assassin’s bullet.  — from Today’s the Day! By Jeremy Beadle

• In 1703, the “Man in the Iron Mask,” a prisoner of Louis XIV in the Bastille prison in Paris, died. The prisoner may have been Count Matthioli, who had double-crossed Louis XIV, or may have even been the brother of Louis XIV. His true identity has been the cause of much intrigue, and was celebrated in literary works such as Alexandre Dumas’ “The Viscount Bragelonne”.

— from The History Place: This Month in History (www.historyplace.com)

In Christian history

• In 1961, the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches convened at New Delhi, India, during which the International Missionary Council and its work was integrated into the larger ecumenical group. — www.studylight.org 

In the Philippines

• In 1850, Isabelo Tampinco, one of the greatest Filipino wood sculptors who carved numerous religious wood sculptures in Manila and elsewhere, was born in Binondo, Manila. His work included the Manila Cathedral’s famous facade, the high relief on Santo Domingo Church’s molave door, the main altar of Laoag Cathedral and wood carvings in San Agustin Church. Tampinco started out at a young age, apprenticing in the various carving shops of Binondo and Santa Cruz districts. Later at age 15, he enrolled at Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, Manila’s prominent art academy where national hero Jose Rizal was a classmate. His interest in and talent for sculpture was not surprising since he was a descendant of Binondo-based Chinese carvers. The lineage of his mother can be traced to Rajah Lakandula, a native Filipino royal who lived before Spain colonized the Philippines. Tampinco’s first major feat as a sculptor came at age 26 when he was chosen as Philippine representative at the Universal Exposition in Philadelphia in the United States. — www.kahimyang.info

In Cebu

• In 1935, Cebuano priest-writer Ismael M. Paras (1865-1935) died.

— from Cebuano Studies Center, University of San Carlos