1546 Martin Luther was buried in the Castle Church (All Saints Church) at Wittenberg, Germany, beneath the pulpit.
1610 Polycarp Leyser the Elder, professor, author and Lutheran theologian, died (b. 18 March 1552, Winnenden, Württemberg). [German Wikipedia article]
1732 Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters, died (b. 6 March 1663).
1805 Sarah Flowers Adams, English religious writer and hymnist, was born in Harlow, Essex, England (d. 14 August 1848).
1819 James Russell Lowell, American poet and hymnist, was born (d. 12 August 1891, Cambridge, Massachusetts).
1840 Milton S. Terry, American Methodist clergyman and educator, was born at Coeymans, New York (d. 1914).
1841 Emanuel Cronenwett, hymnist and hymn translator, was born near Ann Arbor, Michigan (d. 9 March 1931).
1853 The Washington University was founded in Saint Louis as Eliot Seminary, named for Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot (1811–1887).
1854 George Washington Sandt, professor at Augustana College and director of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, was born in Belfast, Pennsylvania (d. 8 January 1931).
1874 Thomas De Witt Talmage’s (1832–1902) reconstructed Brooklyn Tabernacle was dedicated in New York City.
1906 Betty Stam, American missionary martyr in China, was born (d. 8 December 1934).
1906 African American itinerant evangelist William J. Seymour (1870–1922) arrived in Los Angeles to lead a Holiness mission. The group grew larger as word spread of its revival meetings and speaking in tongues, and it eventually moved to a rundown building on Azusa Street. The church’s revival is often cited as one of the birthplaces of Pentecostalism.
1915 George W. Bornemann was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 23 January 1997). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1940 and served as a pastor in Oakmount, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Toronto, Ontario (Canada); and Elmhurst, Illinois. He was also vice-president and president of English District (1976–1984), a counselor for the International Lutheran Laymen’s League, Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and Walther League and a member of the Missouri Synod Armed Forces Commission and Commission on Theology and Church Relations (1983–1989). He retired in 1982.
1922 Concordia Seminary, Hankow, China, was opened.
1968 The International Lutheran School, Hong Kong, was dedicated.
1985 Rev. Henry J. Otten, Jr., died in Madras, India and was buried the next day in Wandoor. He was a missionary to India from May 1950 until his death. He graduated from Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, in 1948, and served one congregation in Elk River, Minnesota until he was called as a missionary. He wrote articles in the Minaret, The Henry Martyn Institute Bulletin, and Cross and Caduceus. He served as the secretary for the Moslem Mission from 1950 to 1956, a was a member of the Muslim Missions Board.
2001 Fire destroyed the sanctuary, fellowship hall, nursery, library, seven Sunday-school classrooms, and church offices of St. John Lutheran Church, Conover, North Carolina. This was the second time since 1798 that fire destroyed this congregation’s building. The first was in 1950. The cross above the bell tower and bell were salvaged by the congregation to be used in the restoration.