883 Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, Greek hymnist, died in Constantinople (b. ca. 810, Syracuse, Sicily).

1507 Martin Luther was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest by Bishop John of Laasphe. Prior Winand at the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt had ordered him to study for the priesthood.

1528 Adolf Clarenbach (ca. 1497–1529), Reformation martyr with Anabaptist tendencies, was arrested in Cologne.

1529 Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio (1471/72–1539) wrote to Henry VIII (1491–1547), warning him of Martin Luther.

1593 George Herbert, English clergyman and poet, was born in Montgomery Castle, Wales (d. 1 March 1633).

1657 John Ernst Gutwasser was called to be the first Lutheran pastor in America by the Lutheran Consistory at Amsterdam.

1769 Gerhard Tersteegen (b. 25 November 1697), German Protestant poet and mystic, died.

1771 Hans Nielsen Hauge, a lay preacher who had a profound impact on Norwegian Lutheranism, was born (d. 29 March 1824).

1826 Reginald Heber, English clergyman and hymnist, died in Trichinopoly, India (b. 21 April 1783).

1863 Theodore John Martin Wolfram, president of the Iowa District of the Missouri Synod, was born in Washington, D.C. (d. 3 April 1953). He was a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois) in 1887 and served as a pastor in Giddings, Texas (1887–1889); Waterloo, Iowa (1889–1914); Charter Oak, Iowa (1914–1922); and Germantown, Iowa (1922–1925). He was an associate pastor at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, beginning in 1925. He served as vice-president of the Iowa District from 1909 to 1914 and as president of that district beginning in 1914. He retired in 1928.

1864 William Henry Ferdinand Cholcher, president of the Southern Nebraska District of the Missouri Synod, was born in Lanz, Pomerania (d. 6 January 1943). He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois) in 1889 and served as a pastor in Deshler, Nebraska, until 1938. He was vice-president of the Nebraska District from 1903 to 1922 and of the Southern Nebraska District from 1922 to 1924. He was president of the latter district from 1924 to 1930.

1866 Joshua Edwards Ford, missionary to Syria, died (b. 3 August 1825, Ogdensburg, New York).

1881 Rudolph H. C. Meyer was born (d. 1958). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1904 and served parishes in Elmore, Ohio (1904–1909); Detroit, Michigan (1909–1925); and Saint Louis, Missouri (1925–1958). He was secretary of the Board of Directors of Concordia Publishing House from 1926 to 1950, chairman of the Church Extension Board of Michigan from 1915 to 1925, chairman of the Mission Board of the Western District from 1945 to 1951 and editor of the Western District edition of The Lutheran Witness from 1936 to 1956.

1888 Alfred August Friedrich Schmieding, professor at Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), was born in Malcolm, near Lincoln, Nebraska (d. 4 May 1963).

1897 Johannes Brahms (b. 7 May 1833), celebrated German composer, died.

1898 Christian August Thomas Selle, a charter member of the Missouri Synod and a professor at the synod’s teachers seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Addison, Illinois, died (b. 21 February 1819, Gelting, Angelm province, Schleswig).

1900 Philipp Jakob Trautmann, a charter member of the Missouri Synod, died (b. 21 February 1815, Lambsborn, Rhenish Palatinate, Bavaria).

1920 Reinhold Pieper, professor of exegetics, homiletics and church history at Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois), died (b. 2 March 1850 in Carwitz, Pomerania).

1949 Karl Gustave Henry Kretzmann, first full-time curator of Concordia Historical Institute, died (b. 23 February 1877).

1950 Ira B. Wilson (b. 6 September 1880), American sacred choral composer, died.

1972 Luther Dotterer Reed, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, died (b. 21 March 1873 at North Walls, Pennsylvania). His most noted literary work is The Lutheran Liturgy.