The modern Pentecostal movement was actually born on New Year's Day 1901 (that is, the first day of the new century) in Topeka, Kansas, USA, at a Bible school for missionaries founded by Charles Fox Parham.

Later, in Houston, Texas, a “visiting student”—who, as a Black man, was not allowed to attend classes directly at the “white” Bible school due to racial laws but was permitted to listen from the hallway—attended the classes. He was the one-eyed William Joseph Seymour, the son of former slaves, who is considered the true father of the modern Pentecostal movement.

Starting in 1906, he met with a group of independent Black Christians in private homes in Los Angeles, including one on Bonnie Brae Street. It was there that, on April 9, 1906, during a 10-day fast, “the fire came down.”

Shortly thereafter, Seymour and his group rented an old Methodist church (which had since been used as a warehouse) at 312 Azusa Street. The meetings held there over several years—three times a day, seven days a week—featuring speaking in tongues and healings are generally regarded as the cradle of the modern Pentecostal movement.