What happened at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901?

Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, served as the watershed site for the contemporary Pentecostalism movement in the early 20th century.1

The college’s director, Charles Fox Parham, sought to revive what he perceived as a formalistic and worldly church through a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He instructed his students to pray, fast, and study the Scriptures in anticipation of this spiritual blessing.1

On January 1, 1901, a student named Agnes Ozman became the first to speak in an unknown tongue, an experience known as glossolalia. Following this, other students had similar experiences. Parham interpreted these events as the "initial evidence" of being baptized with the Holy Spirit and as a prophetic sign of the imminence of the End Times. This event catalyzed the movement, leading Parham and his students to embark on an evangelical mission to spread these beliefs.1