Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word evangelical derives from the Koine Greek term euangelion, meaning good news. It was first used in English by William Tyndale in 1531 to describe the gospel truth. The term became a distinct party designation in the 1730s to mark a shift from established church orthodoxy to a dynamic revivalist movement.
The modern evangelical movement began in the fall of 1734 with a religious revival in Northampton, Massachusetts. This local revival spread to 25 communities in western Massachusetts and central Connecticut and waned only by the spring of 1735. The movement gained international momentum when George Whitefield joined forces with Jonathan Edwards to fan the flame of revival in the Thirteen Colonies.
Key figures included Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield. John Wesley experienced his conversion in 1738 after a voyage to Georgia and a meeting in London while listening to a reading of Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Charles Wesley reported an evangelical conversion in 1738, and the two men along with Whitefield became the driving forces behind the Methodist revival.
Harold Ockenga coined the term neo-evangelicalism in 1947 to identify a movement distinct from fundamentalism. This new movement sought to engage with social concerns and position itself between the fundamentalists and modernists. The National Association of Evangelicals was established in 1943 following a National Conference for United Action among Evangelicals in St. Louis in 1942.
Estimates suggest 600 million to 937 million believers by 2025, depending on whether Pentecostals and Charismatics are included in the count. The movement has become a truly global phenomenon with the strongest movements in Africa based on Pentecostal beliefs and growing especially since independence came in the 1960s. The World Evangelical Alliance claims 600 million believers and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities had 185 members in 21 countries in 2023.