" Amazing Grace " is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton ( 1725 – 1807 ), published in 1779.

Containing a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, " Amazing Grace " is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

" Amazing Grace " was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773.

In the United States however, " Amazing Grace " was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century.

Author Gilbert Chase writes that " Amazing Grace " is " without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns ," and Jonathan Aitken, a Newton biographer, estimates that it is performed about 10 million times annually.

" Amazing Grace " saw a resurgence in popularity in the U. S. during the 1960s and has been recorded thousands of times during and since the 20th century, occasionally appearing on popular music charts.

According to the Dictionary of American Hymnology, " Amazing Grace " is John Newton's spiritual autobiography in verse.

The greatest influences in the 19th century that propelled " Amazing Grace " to spread across the U. S. and become a staple of religious services in many denominations and regions were the Second Great Awakening and the development of shape note singing communities.

" Amazing Grace " was one of many hymns that punctuated fervent sermons, although the contemporary style used a refrain, borrowed from other hymns, that employed simplicity and repetition such as:

William Walker ( composer ) | William Walker, the composer who first joined John Newton's verses to " New Britain ", to create the song that has become " Amazing Grace "

Common meter hymns were interchangeable with a variety of tunes ; more than twenty musical settings of " Amazing Grace " circulated with varying popularity until 1835 when William Walker assigned Newton's words to a traditional song named " New Britain ", which was itself an amalgamation of two melodies (" Gallaher " and " St. Mary ") first published in the Columbian Harmony by Charles H. Spilman and Benjamin Shaw ( Cincinnati, 1829 ).

" Amazing Grace ", with the words written by Newton and joined with " New Britain ", the melody most currently associated with it, appeared for the first time in Walker's shape note tunebook Southern Harmony in 1847.

" Amazing Grace " came to be an emblem of a religious movement and a symbol of the U. S. itself as the country was involved in a great political experiment, attempting to employ democracy as a means of government.

" Amazing Grace " set to " New Britain " was included in two hymnals distributed to soldiers and with death so real and imminent, religious services in the military became commonplace.

Although " Amazing Grace " set to " New Britain " was popular, other versions existed regionally.

Primitive Baptists in the Appalachian region often used " New Britain " with other hymns, and sometimes sing the words of " Amazing Grace " to other folk songs, including titles such as " In the Pines ", " Pisgah ", " Primrose ", and " Evan ", as all are able to be sung in common meter, of which the majority of their repertoire consists.

Moody and Sankey began publishing their compositions in 1875, and " Amazing Grace " appeared three times with three different melodies, but they were the first to give it its title ; hymns were typically published using the first line of the lyrics, or the name of the tune such as " New Britain ".

A publisher named Edwin Othello Excell gave the version of " Amazing Grace " set to " New Britain " immense popularity by publishing it in a series of hymnals that were used in urban churches.

Several editions featuring Newton's first three stanzas and the verse previously included by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin were published by Excell between 1900 and 1910, and his version of " Amazing Grace " became the standard form of the song in American churches.

With the advent of recorded music and radio, " Amazing Grace " began to cross over from primarily a gospel standard to secular audiences.

The ability to record combined with the marketing of records to specific audiences allowed " Amazing Grace " to take on thousands of different forms in the 20th century.

Where Edwin Othello Excell sought to make the singing of " Amazing Grace " uniform throughout thousands of churches, records allowed artists to improvise with the words and music specific to each audience.

" Amazing Grace " is emblematic of several kinds of folk music styles, often used as the standard example to illustrate such musical techniques as lining out and call and response, that have been practiced in both black and white folk music.

Mahalia Jackson employed " Amazing Grace " for Civil Rights marchers, writing that she used it " to give magical protection — a charm to ward off danger, an incantation to the angels of heaven to descend ...

" Folk singer Judy Collins, who knew the song before she could remember learning it, witnessed Fannie Lou Hamer leading marchers in Mississippi in 1964, singing " Amazing Grace ".

* Amazing Grace: Some Early Tunes Anthology of the American Hymn-Tune Repertory

* Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?

Rogers, author: Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands: The Old World ; Nature Knows No Color Line ; Sex and Race: A History of White, Negro, and Indian Miscegenation in the Two Americas: The New World ; 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof: A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro

* " The Truth About the Amazing F-111 ".

Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, What's So Amazing About Grace in 1998.

* What's So Amazing About Grace?

* 1998-What's So Amazing About Grace-Philip Yancey

Bowles wrote the songs " Fragile ", recorded by Peter Mulvey and Caroline Aiken, and " Grace ", based on a book by author Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace ?.

A. Rogers ", 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro, With Complete Proof: A Shortcut to the World History of the Negro ( St. Petersburg, Florida: Helga M. Rogers, Publisher, 1995 ).

Jeron Criswell King ( August 18, 1907 – October 4, 1982 ), born Jeron Criswell Konig, and known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell (), was an American psychic known for wildly inaccurate predictions.

* 1990 – Brooke Thompson, Amazing person

* Richings Park Amazing Maize Maze, Richings Park, near Heathrow, England ( Open July – September )

* CricInfo – " Amazing Grace " by David Frith, 2 Aug 2010

* August 10 – Marvel Comics publishes Amazing Fantasy # 15, which features the first published appearance of the superhero character of Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

* January 12 – The Amazing Kreskin, American mentalist

* Amazing Spider-Man # 298-323, 325, 328 ( 1988 – 90 )

* St John's Hoxton – Anglican church ( where " Amazing Grace " was written )

* Joan Baez ( introduced by Jack Nicholson ) – " Amazing Grace "/" We Are the World " ( JFK 14: 02 );

* John Newton – songwriter, Amazing Grace lyricist ( 1982 )

* 13 – 15 September 2002 Ichiban Amazing Show ( Twins Ichiban 興奮演唱會 )

* 18 – 19 January 2003 Matsunichi Twins Guangzhou Amazing Show ( 松日Twins廣州興奮演唱會 )

Eastern Color published 12 issues of Buster Crabbe Comics from 1951 – 53, followed by Lev Gleason's The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe for four issues in 1954.

* Amazing Stories ( TV ) ( 1985 – 87 )

* Terry Pratchett – The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Thief of Time and The Last Hero

* Russell McGuirk The Sanusi's Little War The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915 – 1917 ( London, Arabian Publishing: 2007 )

# The Amazing Africans – ( Africa )

# The Amazing Americans – ( Late 19th and early 20th century United States )

Author of numerous flagellation novels published in London and Paris including: Two Lascivious Adventures of Mr. Howard – A continuation of Maud Cameron and her Guardian ( 1907 ), The Amazing Chastisements of Miss Bostock ( 1908 ), Three Chapters in the Life of Mr. Howard ( 1908 ), Whipping as a Fine Art – Being an Account of Exquisite and Refined Chastisement Inflicted by Mr. Howard on Grown-up Schoolgirls ( 1909 ), et al.

From 1985 – 1987, Fantagraphics coordinated and presented ( through Amazing Heroes ) The Jack Kirby Award for achievement in comic books, voted on by comic-book professionals.

** Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Book and lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

* December 21 – John Newton, author of the hymn, Amazing Grace ( b. 1725 )