Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dürer, Artists
202 Irenaeus, Greek church father, died (b. ca. 130).
1123 The First Lateran Council closed under Pope Callixtus II (papacy, 1119–1124).
1199 King Richard I (b. 8 September 1157), ruler of England from 1189, died. He was known as The Lionheart and was one of the three principal leaders of the Third Crusade (1189–1192).
1249 King Louis IX (1214–1270) of France was taken prisoner by Muslims during the seventh crusade, which was supposed to overcome the Muslim political center in Egypt.
1520 Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), Italian painter and architect, died (b. 28 March 1483, Urbino, Italy).
1528 Albrecht Dürer, Reformation artist and adherent of the Reformation, died (b. 21 May 1471). The collection at Concordia Historical Institute contains two series of Dürer’s woodcuts.
1655 David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman, historian and classical scholar, died (b. 1591).
1759 The last active performance by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) took place. It was a production of The Messiah.
1801 The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church recognized the new African Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination was formed by African Americans who had been denied membership and/or recognition within the white Methodist churches, particularly in Philadelphia and New York. The A.M.E. church became the prototype for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, established in 1820.
1810 Edmund H. Sears, American Unitarian clergyman and hymnist, was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts (d. 16 January 1876).
1830 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) was founded by Joseph Smith in Manchester, New York.
1836 The North German Foreign Missionary Society was formed.
1851 Anglican churchman and Archbishop of Westminster Henry E. Manning (1808–1892) converted to Roman Catholicism. His conversion stemmed from an increasing commitment to the principles of the Oxford Movement (ca. 1833–1845) that was then influencing the English national church. In 1860 Manning became the chief English defender of the pope’s temporal power. He was made Archbishop of Westminster in 1865, and in 1875 he became a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.
1860 Joseph Smith III (1832–1914) created the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844).
1877 Alexander R. Reinagle, a distinguished English church organist and composer, died (b. 21 August 1799).
1889 Benjamin H. Kennedy, hymn translator, died (b. 6 November 1804).
1889 Sir Frederick A. G. Ouseley, composer, died in Hereford, England (b. 12 August 1825, London, England).
1893 The Mormons dedicated their Salt Lake Temple in Utah after forty years of construction.
1932 Eric Liddell (1902–1945), the Olympic athlete whose story was told in the film Chariots of Fire, made his evangelistic debut by sharing his testimony to a group of men in Armadale, Scotland.
1947 The Lutheran Hour began operations in Brazil.
1966 Swiss theologian Emil Brunner (b. 23 December 1889) died. He was one of the most influential theologians between the two world wars.
1976 Concordia College (Ann Arbor) was granted permission to become a four-year college by the Michigan state board of education. The Ann Arbor school incorporated the junior year of the educational program at Concordia Senior College (Fort Wayne, Indiana) in September 1976 and the senior year in September 1977. In 2013 it merged with Concordia University Wisconsin and is known as Concordia University Ann Arbor (CUAA).