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Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

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Date 1954-1, descending sort earliest first

date event tags firsts
1954 16 Dec Shoghi Effendi announced the death of Avarih in Iran, "CONDEMNED POSTERITY MOST SHAMELESS, VICIOUS, RELENTLESS APOSTATE ANNALS FAITH, WHO THROUGH CEASELESS VITRIOLIC ATTACKS RECORDED VOLUMINOUS WRITINGS CLOSE ALLIANCE ITS TRADITIONAL ENEMIES, ASSIDUOUSLY SCHEMED BLACKEN ITS NAME SUBVERT FOUNDATIONS ITS INSTITUTIONS.
  • In the same message he announced the death of Ameen Fareed in North America; "HISTORY WILL RECOGNIZE ONE MOST PERFIDIOUS AMONG KINSMEN INTERPRETERS CENTER COVENANT, WHO, DRIVEN BY UNGOVERNABLE CUPIDITY COMMITTED ACTS CAUSING AGONIES GRIEF DESTRESS BELOVED MASTER CULMINATING OPEN ASSOCIATION BREAKERS BAHA'U'LLAH'S COVENANT HOLY LAND."
  • Likewise he announced the death of Falah in Turkey; "CHIEFLY REMEMBERED PRIDE, OBSTINACY INSATIABLE AMBITION IMPELLING HIM VIOLATE SPIRITUAL ADMINISTRATIVE PRECEPTS FAITH."
    • Ne'matullah Falah had left Iran at the time of Baha'u'llah's exile and had finally settled in Iskenderun, Turkey, where he had become a successful businessman. He had been appointed Honorary Iranian Consul in that city, a post he had taken upon the explicit encouragement of the Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Upon his accession to the Guardianship Shoghi Effendi had considered that it would serve the Cause better if Baha'is refrained from all political activities. He therefore asked Falah to resign his post. This Falah refused to do, especially as he had a letter from the Master urging him to take the post. This resulted in the expulsion of Falah and his family from the Cause.
    [Bahá'í History]
  • Covenant-breakers; `Abdu'l-Husayn Ávárih; Ameen Fareed (Amin Farid); Nematullah Falah; Iran; Turkey; USA
    1954 8 Dec Bahá'ís in Ádharbáyján were dismissed from their employment in the Ministries of Health and Public Highways. [BW18p390] Persecution, Adharbayjan; - Persecution, Other; - Persecution; Azerbaijan
    1954 27 Nov Shoghi Effendi described the significance of the world administrative centre of the Faith and the 'structures, which will serve as the administrative seats of such divinely appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the Cause, and the Universal House of Justice' to be ranged along a 'far-flung arc'. [MBW74] Guardianship; - Hands of the Cause; Universal House of Justice, Seat of; Arc (World Centre); - Bahá'í World Centre buildings, monuments and gardens; - Bahá'í World Centre; Shoghi Effendi, Life of; - Bahá'í World Centre; Mount Carmel; Haifa, Israel
    1954 27 Nov Shoghi Effendi announced the commencement of "the excavation for the foundations of the International Archives heralding the rise of the first edifice destine to inaugurate the establishment of the seat of the World Baha'i Administrative order in the Holy Land". [MBW75] International Bahá'í Archives; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1954 20 Nov The first person to become a Bahá'í in Tonga, Harry Terepo, born in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, enrolled.
  • He was a teacher, interpreter and guide living in Ohonua on the island of Eua.
  • First Bahá'ís by country or area; Tonga first Bahá’í in Tonga
    1954 1 Nov The members of the Algerian National Liberation Front initiated an armed conflict on French targets to start the Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the War of Independence which lasted until 1962 and lead to the independence of Algeria from France. This decolonization war was marked by guerrilla warfare, war crimes, and civil strife. The conflict ended with the signing of the Évian Accords.

    The war had a profound human cost, with estimates of Algerian casualties ranging from 400,000 to 1.5 million, alongside 25,600 French soldiers and 6,000 Europeans. The war also saw the perpetration of war crimes, including massacres, rape, torture, the destruction of villages, and the displacement of over 2 million Algerians. Upon independence, approximately 900,000 European-Algerians fled to France. The FLN targeted the Harkis, Algerian Muslims who served with the French army, for retribution, with many facing brutal violence. About 90,000 Harkis found refuge in France, where they and their descendants form a significant community​. [Wikipedia]

    Colonialism and imperialism; History (general); Algeria; France
    1954 Nov A plot of land of slightly less than half an acre (1,300 metres) owned by Farah Sprague (Farahangiz Khanum), a Covenant-breaker, was purchased (after expropriation by the Finance Minister of the state of Israel on the recommendation of the mayor of Haifa), overcoming the final obstacle to beginning the construction of the International Bahá'í Archives. This concluded a thirty-year struggle in the acquisition of land on the Arc for the Guardian. [LI210-211; DH169; MBW73–4; CBN No 60 January 1955 p1]
  • He said, in a letter dated the 27th of November 1955...

      "The truculence, greed and obstinacy, of this breaker of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, demonstrated by her persistent refusal to sell and by the exorbitant price subsequently demanded, raised, during more than thirty years, an almost insurmountable obstacle to the acquisition of an area, which, however circumscribed, occupies a central position amidst the extensive Baha'i domains in the heart of God's holy Mountain, is situated in the vicinity of the Báb's Sepulchre, overlooks the Tomb of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and adjoins the resting-places of the Brother and the Mother of Abdu'l-Bahá, and which, through deliberate neglect, has. been allowed to become an eyesore to all those who throng the embellished precincts of a Mausoleum rightly regarded as the second holiest Shrine in the Bahá'í world.
      The ownership of this plot will now enable us to locate the site, excavate the foundations, and erect the structure, of the International Bahá'í Archives, designed by the Hand of the Cause, Mason Remey, President of the International Bahá'í Council, which will serve as the permanent and befitting repository for the priceless and numerous relics associated with the Twin Founders of the Faith, with the Perfect Exemplar of its teachings and with its heroes, saints and martyrs, and the building of which constitutes one of the foremost objectives of the Ten-Year Plan. [CBN No 60 January 1955 p1]
  • Farah Sprague (Farahangiz Khanum); Covenant-breakers; International Bahá'í Archives; Purchases and exchanges; Mount Carmel; - Bahá'í World Centre buildings, monuments and gardens; Haifa, Israel
    1954 22 Oct Mr and Mrs Suleimani arrived in Keelung, Taiwan by ship. They spent the rest of their lives there.

    Ridvaniyyih Suleimani served on the Auxiliary Board and the National Spiritual Assembly. She passed away in Taiwan on the 18th of March 1981. [BW18p752-754]

    Suleiman Suleimani served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Taiwan from its formation in 1967 until 1978. He also served as a deputy of the institution of the Huqúqu'lláh for about two decades. [BW20p889-891]

    The Suleimanis, originally from Iran, had lived for about 28 years in Shanghai where Mrs Ridvaniyyih Suleimani's father, Mr Husayn Ouskouli Uskuli (or Uskui) had long resided and conducted a business. Mr and Mrs Suleimani had left Shanghai permanently in 1950 because of the difficult situations for foreigners in China but Mr Ouskouli decided to stay on and won the admiration of the Guardian. He died in Shanghai at the age of 86. [The Taiwan Bahá'í Chronicle by Barbara R. Sims p3; PH39; Video Early history of the Bahá'í Faith in China 7 min 57 sec]

    - Knights of Bahá'u'lláh; Riḍvániyyih Ouskouli and Muhammad Suleimani Milani; Husayn Ouskouli Uskuli; Auxiliary board members; Keelung, Taiwan; Taiwan; Shanghai, China; China
    1954 8 Oct Richard Nolen and his family, (Lois A. (Warner), Linda Jean, Cynthia and John), arrived in the Azores, for which he and his wife were named Knights of Bahá'u'lláh. Two more children,Christopher Lee and Sylvia Louise, were born to the Nolens during their time there. Due to Richards failing health, the family returned to the United States and settled in Tacoma, Washington in August of 1962. After a prolonged illness Richard passed away on the 5th of May 1964. [Bahaipedia] Richard Nolen; Lois Nolen; Linda Jean Nolen; Cynthia Nolen; John Nolen; Knight of Bahá'u'lláh; Azores
    1954 Oct The first person to become a Bahá'í in Nassau, Bahamas, Winfield Small, a young police officer from Barbados, enrolled.
  • Mr Small opened Barbados to the Faith.
  • First Bahá'ís by country or area; Nassau, Bahamas; Bahamas; Barbados first Bahá’í in Nassau, Bahamas
    1954 3 Oct Shoghi Effendi designated Martha Root as a Hand of the Cause of God posthumously. She had passed away on September 28, 1939 in Hawaii.
  • Shoghi Effendi called her the 'archetype of Bahá'í itinerant teachers', the 'foremost Hand raised by Bahá'u'lláh since 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing', 'Leading ambassadress of His Faith' and 'Pride of Bahá'í teachers'. [GPB386]
  • Hands of the Cause, Appointments; Martha Root
    1954 1 - 3 Oct Bahá'ís of Germany and the European Hands of the Cause invited the Bahá'ís of Europe to the Haziratu'l-Quds in Frankfurt am Main to develop plans and to coordinate action in the work of the second phase of the Ten-Year Crusade. [BN No 285 Nov 1954 p5] Conferences, Teaching; - Conferences; Frankfurt, Germany; Germany first Bahá'í European Conference to meet in Germany
    1954 1 Oct Shoghi Effendi announced that there were Bahá'ís in 235 countries and territories and over 3000 centres around the world. [MBW69–70] Statistics; Growth; Ten Year Crusade; - Worldwide
    1954 1 Oct Anthony and Mamie Seto arrived in Hong Kong. - Knights of Bahá'u'lláh; Anthony Seto; Mamie Seto; Hong Kong; - Asia
    1954 1 Oct The title of the a parcel of land on Mount Carmel was transferred to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, Israel Branch. The title deed was for Parcel No. 304, Block 10811 Mount Carmel, Haifa. Purchases and exchanges; Mount Carmel; Haifa, Israel; Israel; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1954 Oct A National Haziratu'l-Quds was established in Kabul. [MBW70; 81] Haziratul-Quds (Bahá'í centres); Kabul, Afghanistan; Afghanistan

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