Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga, his wife and three of their children were slain by unknown gunmen September 16, 1979, outside their home in Kampala, Uganda

The Hand of the Cause of God Enoch Olinga, "The Father of Victories", and his wife Elizabeth during a Baha'i conference in Brazil in 1977.

Cable from the Universal House of Justice:

WITH GRIEF-STRICKEN HEARTS ANNOUNCE TRAGIC NEWS BRUTAL MURDER DEARLY LOVED GREATLY ADMIRED HAND CAUSE GOD ENOCH OLINGA BY UNKNOWN GUNMEN COURTYARD HIS KAMPALA HOME. HIS WIFE ELIZABETH, AND THREE OF HIS CHILDREN BADI, LENNIE AND TAHlRlH HAVE ALSO FALLEN INNOCENT VICTIMS THIS CRUEL ACT. MOTIVE ATTACK NOT YET ASCERTAINED. HIS RADIANT SPIRIT, HIS UNWAVERING FAITH, HIS ALL-EMBRACING LOVE, HIS LEONINE AUDACITY IN THE TEACHING FIELD, HIS TITLES KNIGHT BAHA'U'LLAH FATHER VICTORIES CONFERRED BELOVED GUARDIAN, ALL COMBINE DISTINGUISH HIM AS PRE-EMINENT MEMBER HIS RACE IN ANNALS FAITH AFRICAN CONTINENT. URGE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS BEFITTING TRIBUTE HIS IMPERISHABLE MEMORY. FERVENTLY PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS NOBLE SOUL AND SOULS FOUR MEMBERS HIS PRECIOUS FAMILY.

THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
September 17, 1979

1978: First National Baha'i Youth Committee of Papua New Guinea

The first National Baha'i Youth Committee of Papua New Guinea with Auxiliary Board member Dr. Sirus Naraqi (standing at the left).

For the first time in the history of the Faith in Papua New Guinea, a National Baha'i Youth Conference was held in October 1978 near the capital, Port Moresby. The two-day conference was planned and conducted by the country's first National Baha'I Youth Committee, appointed in July l978 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Papua New Guinea. More than 100 believers from 19 communities, the majority of them youth, attended the conference. Publicity included two announcements on Papua New Guinea's national radio station. The conference included deepenings on Baha’i administration, Baha’i consultation, teaching the Faith, Baha’i principles, and the significance of the Faith in today's troubled world. Although pioneers from Port Moresby and Kwikila assisted in the program, most of the talks were given by the youth themselves. During an evening social meeting, traditional dances were performed and slides of Baha’I Holy Places shown. As a result of the conference, four persons in Port Moresby declared their belief in Baha'u'llah. 
(Baha’i News, June, 1979)

First Eastern woman to speak in public in the East

Dr. and Mrs. K. M. Foujdar, of Bombay, who were married, Feb.2, 1925. Mrs. Foujdar was Miss Shirin M. Irani. She holds a unique position as the first Eastern woman to be able to speak in public in the East. Shoghi Effenndi, Guardian of the Baha’i Cause, in a recent letter, said of her: “The pioneer work undertaken by our dear friend, Shirin, for the emancipation of her Indian sisters, is highly praiseworthy, and will in time yield abundant fruit." 
(Star of the West, vol.16, no. 3, June 1925)

First Baha'i National Teaching Conference for Bangladesh, Feb. 1979

The first Baha'i National Teaching Conference for Bangladesh was held on February 23-25, 1979. More than 150 persons participated. The conference theme was 'The Oneness of Mankind.' The opening address was delivered by Emran Ali Sarkar, a member of the national parliment and chairman of Rajshahi municipality, who warmly welcomed the Baha'is and wished them success in their spiritual understanding. (Baha'i News, July 1979)

First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Zaloadgy, Burma, Feb. 1978

The first Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Zaloadgy, Burma. The Assembly was elected in February 1978, shortly after a visit by Mrs. Marguerite Birger that resulted in 35 enrollments in that previously unopened community. Mrs. Birger, from Collinsville, Illinois, was a member of an international Baha'i teaching team in Thailand in January 1978 when she was asked by the Continental Board of Counselors in South East Asia to spend a week in Burma. She was the first foreigner ever to visit the village of Zaloadgy. 

(Baha’i News, May 1979)

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s first public talk in the West -- City Temple, London, England, Sunday, September 10th, 1911

‘Abdul-Baha attended the evening service at the City Temple on Sunday. No announcement of the visit was made, and, although the sight of the Persians and other members of the suite in the congregation excited curiosity, very few people were aware that the Baha’i leader was expected. The service proceeded as usual until the hymn immediately preceding the sermon. Whilst this was being sung a venerable figure, clad in Persian robes, was seen slowly ascending the stairs of the pulpit. When the hymn was finished Mr. Campbell placed the distinguished visitor in his own chair, and then, addressing the crowded congregation, said:

"I propose to shorten my sermon this evening, because we have a visitor in the pulpit whose presence is somewhat significant of the spiritual drawing-together of East and West, as well as of the material drawing-together which has long been going on, and I think you would like to hear his voice, if only for a few moments."

West African Baha'i Women Conference, December 28, 1978, Monrovia, Liberia

West African Baha'i Women Conference, December 28, 1978, Monrovia, Liberia. Sixteen countries sent delegates to the conference. The United States, Germany and Spain's representatives joined those of the West African nations. The conference was conducted in English, with French, Mano and Pelle translations; a total of 23 languages were spoken by the 150 women and 50 men who attended the conference. 

(Baha'i News, April 1979)

June 1973: First meeting of the International Teaching Center

First meeting of the International Teaching Center, Bahji, June 1973. Members included Hands of the Cause of God Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum, 'Ali Akbar Furutan, Paul E. Haney, and Abu'l-Qasim Faizy, and Counsellors Hooper Dunbar, Florence Mayberry, and 'Aziz Yazdi. (Baha'i News April 1979)

First Baha'i wedding in Scotland without a civil ceremony

The newly-acquired Baha'i Center in Edinburgh, Scotland, was the scene Saturday, June 10, of the first Baha'i wedding ever to take place in Scotland without a civil ceremony. The bride, is Pamela McClure, the groom Brian O'Toole. Both are from Glasgow. The wedding officer, one of three Baha'is in Scotland authorized to carry out weddings, was Surgeon-Commander John More-Nisbet of Edinburgh. Since this was the first non-Christian or non-Jewish marriage ceremony to be recognized in Scotland, news of it was published in one national, two Scottish and one local newspaper. BBC Radio-Scotland even recorded and broadcast a part of the ceremony and gave an, accurate outline of the Faith. Three weeks after the wedding Brian O'Toole pioneered to Guyana were he soon was joined by his wife. 
(Baha’i News, January 1979)

Seat of the Universal House of Justice under construction during 1979

(Baha'i News, March 1979)

Two of the first Baha'i International Community's official representatives

Ugo Giachery and Mildred Motahedeh were two of the first official representatives of the Baha'i International Community. This picture was taken in 1948, at the first United Nations Conference that the International Community ever attended. (Baha'i News, March 1979)

The first pilgrims were received by Baha’u’llah in Adrianople in the House of Amru’llah

During the exile period in Adrianople “the first pilgrimages were made to the residence [House of Amru’llah, ‘the House of God's Command’] of One Who was now the visible Center of a newly-established Faith -- pilgrimages which by reason of their number and nature, an alarmed government in Persia was first impelled to restrict, and later to prohibit, but which were the precursors of the converging streams of Pilgrims who, from East and West, at first under perilous and arduous circumstances, were to direct their steps towards the prison-fortress of 'Akká -- pilgrimages which were to culminate in the historic arrival of a royal convert at the foot of Mt. Carmel, who, at the very threshold of a longed-for and much advertised pilgrimage, was so cruelly thwarted from achieving her purpose. 
(Shoghi Effendi, 'God Passes By')

During certain part of His Ministry Baha’u’llah revealed “the equivalent of a thousand verses” “within the space of an hour”!!

Shoghi Effendi explains that toward the latter part of His stay in Adrianople "a period of prodigious activity ensued. ..." "Such are the outpourings ... from the clouds of Divine Bounty," Bahá'u'lláh Himself wrote, "that within the space of an hour the equivalent of a thousand verses hath been revealed." "I swear by God! In those days the equivalent of all that hath been sent down aforetime unto the Prophets hath been revealed" (God Passes By, pp. 170-70).