Anselm of Canterbury

1073 Pope Alexander II died.

1142 Peter Abelard (b. 1079), French philosopher, teacher and theologian, died.

1488 Ulrich von Hutten, hymnist and Reformation publicist, was born at Steckelberg Castle, near Fulda, Franconia (d. 29 August 1523).

1512 The Second Council of Pisa suspended Julius II as pope. To counter the political consequences of this action, Julius convened the Fifth Council of the Lateran in Rome less than a month later on 3 May.

1532 Martin Schalling, hymnist, was born in Strasbourg (d. 19/29 December 1608).

1562 Valerius Herberger, Lutheran theologian and hymnist, was born in Fraustadt, Posen (d. 18 May 1627, Fraustadt). [German Wikipedia article]

1632 The Dordrecht Confession of the Mennonites was adopted.

1649 The Toleration Act was passed by the Maryland Assembly after strong support by Lord Baltimore, the Roman Catholic proprietor of Maryland. The act protected Roman Catholics within the colony against Protestant harassment, which was rising due to Oliver Cromwell’s rise to power in England in 1642.

1783 Reginald Heber, English churchman and hymnist, was born in Malpas, Cheshire, England (d. 3 April 1826).

1822 Hannibal Goodwin, rector of the Episcopal House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey, who patented a method for making transparent, flexible roll film, was born in Taughannock, New York (d. 31 December 1900).

1855 Boston Sunday school teacher Edward Kimball led eighteen-year-old shoe clerk Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) to a saving faith in Jesus Christ at the Holton Shoe Store in Boston. A year and a half later Moody moved to Chicago, where he embarked on a preaching career, eventually becoming one of the most well-known Gospel evangelists of his day.

1856 Johnson Oatman Jr., American Methodist hymn writer, was born near Medford, New Jersey (d. 25 September 1922, Norman, Oklahoma).

1862 Anna Belle Russell, active American Methodist laywoman and hymn writer, was born in Pine Valley, New York (d. 29 October 1954, Corning, New York).

1865 John Edmund Seuel, professor and manager of Concordia Publishing House, was born in Vincennes, Indiana (d. 9 May 1951).

1891 Georgia E. Harkness, American theological instructor, was born in Harkness, New York (d. 30 August 1974, Claremont, California).

1897 Aiden Wilson Tozer, influential pastor and devotional writer of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, was born (d. 12 May 1963).

1898 Norman Henry Snaith, Methodist Old Testament scholar, was born in Oxfordshire, England (d. 1982). His greatest contributions to biblical studies were the texts he produced on the Psalms (1934, 1938, 1945, 1951).

1920 The first Missouri Synod Lutheran chapel was opened in Shihnan, China.

1930 Robert Seymour Bridges, hymn translator, died (b. 23 October 1844).

1933 Philip Wambsganss Jr., a pastor at Fort Wayne, Indiana, prominent in Missouri Synod welfare work, died (b. 16 February 1857). He was president of the Lutheran Deaconess Association from 1919 to 1933.

1944 William Herman Theodore Dau, member of the faculty of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) and president of Valparaiso University, died (b. 8 February 1864).

1978 The first volunteer youth minister (VYM) to be received by the China Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC), Rod Ketcher, arrived in Taipei, Taiwan. Previously the program had existed only in Japan.