The Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

70 The Romans burned the gates and entered the temple courtyards of Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed by fire. Within a month Jewish resistance ended.

1518 Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) delivered his inaugural address at the University of Wittenberg.

1523 Ulrich von Hutten, Martin Luther’s friend, a humanist, died (b. 21 April 1488, b. Steckelberg Castle, near Fulda, Franconia).

1530 Melanchthon began drafting the Apology of the Augsburg Confession.

1632 John Locke, English philosopher, was born in Somersetshire, England (d. 28 October 1704).

1792 Charles Grandison Finney, American revivalist and educator, was born in Warren, Connecticut (d. 16 August 1875).

1794 William Ellis, missionary to the South Seas, was born in London (d. 1872).

1811 Wilhelm Georg Christoph Hattstädt, who was sent by Wilhelm Loehe as a missionary to America and was a charter member of the Missouri Synod, was born in Langenzenn, Bavaria (d. 22 March 1884, Monroe, Michigan).

1818 C. L. August Wolter, professor at the Missouri Synod’s practical seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 31 August 1849).

1855 Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, missionary to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), died (b. 13 March 1799).

1861 Carl F. W. Gausewitz was born in Reedsville, Wisconsin (d. 4 September 1927).

1867 Henry Fred Andrew Stein was born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 10 May 1948). He was a graduate of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1889 and served as a pastor in Springfield, Massachusetts. He became a professor at Concordia Collegiate Institute (Bronxville, New York) 1892 and was a member of that faculty until his death. He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University in classics.

1877 Brigham Young (b. 1 June 1801), American Mormon leader, died.

1879 Elsie Singmaster, Lutheran novelist and historical writer, was born in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania (d. 30 September 1958).

1894 The cornerstone was laid for a new Lutheran “teachers seminary” in Seward, Nebraska.

1908 Lewis Henry Redner (b. 15 December 1830), American Episcopal organist and active Sunday school leader, died.

1997 Arthur M. Ahlschwede, a graduate of Concordia Teachers College (Seward, Nebraska) in 1941, died in Austin, Texas (b. 5 December 1914, Seward, Nebraska). He served as teacher in Hepler, Kansas; Gillette, Arkansas; Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Austin, Texas. He was also assistant executive secretary (1956-1961) and executive secretary (1961-1980) of the Missouri Synod’s Board for Higher Education. He retired in 1984 but continued to serve as consultant-in-residence at Concordia University (Austin).

1999 The Rev. Andrew Mbugo Elisa, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan (ELCS), became the first pastor of the the church body through ordination on this date in Khartoum. The ELCS was formed one year prior. Elisa had studied for a year at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, as well in his own country. No LCMS missionaries were allowed in Sudan, so the church body would be totally indigenous.