jan 1, 1608 - John Smyth & Thomas Helwys organize first English-speaking Baptist Church

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As a result of British persecution and theological rediscovery (particularly believers’ baptism), Smyth and Helwys established the first English-speaking Baptist church in Amsterdam, Holland. In 1611, Helwys returned to London functionally established a church-planting cycle, resulting in numerous like-minded churches under the denominational title of General Baptists. Through this work, many Baptist distinctives began to spread and solidify into what we know today (one negative exception is their embrace of universal atonement, a theological slack picked up by the Particular Baptists the following generation). In spite of the Arminian bent, the establishment of the first English-speaking Baptist church was indispensable in laying the foundation for Baptist life to this very day.

(http://www.baptisthistory.org/baptistorigins/baptistbeginnings.html; http://www.reformedreader.org/history/timeline/17thcentury.htm)

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