Philipp Melanchthon, Confessor

1519 Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader, was born (d. 24 August 1572).

1561 Cornelius Canis (also de Hondt, d’Hondt), a Franco-Flemish composer, singer and choir director of the Renaissance, active for much of his life in the Grande Chapelle, the imperial Habsburg music establishment during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), died (b. between 1500 and 1510).

1791 Samuel Gilman, hymnist, was born at Gloucester, Massachusetts (d. 9 February 1858, Kingston, Massachusetts).

1801 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church was officially incorporated as a Protestant denomination and chartered, distinctly separate from its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1851 Friedrich Rechlin, professor at Concordia Teachers College (Addison and River Forest, Illinois), was born in Bergen, Central Ruegen island in the Baltic Sea, Pomerania (d. 9 December 1915).

1852 Charles Taze Russell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 31 October 1916).

1855 Heinrich Huet, Ohio Synod pastor, died (b. 14 February 1772).

1857 Philipp Wambsganss of Fort Wayne, Indiana, institutional minister, was born (d. 21 April 1933, Fort Wayne). His interests centered in hospitals and child welfare agencies.

1864 William Lee Hunton, Lutheran publishing house manager, was born in Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada (d. 12 October 1930).

1872 Henry F. Chorley, hymnist, died (b. 15 December 1808).

1886 Hans Knudsen, missionary to Tranquebar for seven years, died (b. 11 January 1813, Copenhagen).

1903 Martin Paul William Simon, missionary to China and author, was born in Zachow, Wisconsin (d. 23 September 1969, Saint Louis).

1904 Carl Aaron Swensson, Swedish Lutheran educator and theologian, died (b. 25 June 1857, Sugargrove, Pennsylvania).

1911 “Rise Up, O Men of God” by William P. Merrill (1867–1954) was first published in the Presbyterian periodical The Continent. Merrill wrote the hymn that same year while aboard a steamer on Lake Michigan, heading back to his home in Chicago.

1921 Benjamin B. Warfield, Presbyterian theologian, died (b. 5 November 1851, Lexington, Kentucky).

1925 Olav L. Kirkeberg, president of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died (b. 11 October 1849, Valdres, Norway).