475 Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus (d. 476/477) issued a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.

1438 Eastern church representatives attended the Council of Florence.

1557 Mikael Agricola, Finnish reformer, died (b. ca. 1510).

1592 Jiří Třanovský (George Trzanowski, Georgius Tranoscius, Jerzy Tranowski), Polish-Slovak theologian, church poet and hymnist, was born in Cieszyn, Silesia  (d. 1637). [Hymntime entry]

1598 Johann Crüger, German Lutheran church chorister, organist, composer and hymnist, was born in Gross-Briesen, Prussia (d. 23 February 1662).

1626 English philosopher of science Sir Francis Bacon died (b. 22 January 1561).

1761 William Law (b. 1686), English devotional writer, died.

1813 Jane Borthwick, hymn translator and writer, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 7 September 1897).

1816 The African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church was founded in Philadelphia.

1828 George Boardman Sr.(1801–1831), missionary to India, arrived in Tavoy, Burma.

1875 John S. B. Monsell, hymnist, died at Guildford, Ireland (b. 2 March 1811, Saint Columb’s, Londonderry, Ireland).

1906 In Los Angeles Holiness minister William Seymour (1870–1922) and several associates experienced what they called the “baptism of the Spirit,” marked by speaking in tongues. This launched the three-year “Azusa Street Revival,” considered the first major public event of Pentecostalism.

1910 Heinrich August Allwardt, one of C. F. W. Walther’s opponents in the Predestinarian Controversy, died (b. 2 March 1840).

1918 Elmer J. Moeller, pastor and professor, born in Ainsworth, Nebraska (d. 30 April 1987, Estes Park, Colorado). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1943 and served as a pastor in Bismarck and Baldwin, North Dakota, and Lamar and Castle Rock, Colorado. He taught at both Concordia College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois). From 1948 to 1950 he was the chairman of the Press Committee of the North Dakota District.

1923 Wilhelm Hermann Kowert, Lutheran missionary to New Zealand and an Illinois pastor, died (b. 7 July 1842, Neukirchen, near Melle, Hannover).

1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (b. 4 February 1906), German Lutheran clergyman, theologian and author, was hanged by the Nazis.

1947 The first LCMS communion service was held in Havana, Cuba.