This week in Christian history: Japan legalizes Christianity, Kathryn Kuhlman dies, John Henry Newman leaves Oxford

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, February 18, 2024

Kathryn Kuhlman dies – Feb. 20, 1976

Kathryn Kuhlman (1907-1976), a pioneering televangelist and Pentecostal preacher. | Screengrab: YouTube/Benny Hinn

This week marks the anniversary of when Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman, a prominent televangelist and Pentecostal preacher who once had a Christian talk show program on CBS, died at the age of 68.

A native of Concordia, Missouri, who dropped out of school at age 14 to pursue a life as a traveling preacher, Kuhlman founded one of the first Christian talk radio programs in 1933 and had a long-running CBS program titled “I Believe in Miracles.”

“Kuhlman’s down-home preaching style and simple message brought comfort to millions of people as they listened to her on the radio or watched her on television,” explained the Missouri Encyclopedia.

“Before she died in 1976 she held regular services at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and in Pittsburgh and also made guest appearances all over the world, including one at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis in 1972.”