Frederick the Wise

321 The Emperor Constantine (ca. 272–337), unable to subdue the Donatists, gave them grudging tolerance.

553 The Second Council of Constantinople convened under the presidency of Eutychius, the city’s new patriarch.

1613 Johann Steuerlein, German Lutheran pastor, poet and musician, died in Meiningen (b. 5 July 1546, Schmalkalden).

1626 Sigismund von Birken (Betulius), tutor and poet, was born at Wildenstein, near Eger in Bohemia (d. 12 June 1681).

1646 King Charles I of England (1600–1649) and Scotland surrendered to the Scottish Presbyterian Army at Newark.

1766 Jean Astruc (b. 19 March 1684), French physician and pioneer in modern Pentateuchal criticism, died.

1808 Ludwig Harms, founder of the Hermannsburg Mission Society, was born at Walsrode, Hannover (d. 14 November 1865). [German Wikipedia article]

1813 Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Danish theologian and philosopher, was born in Copenhagen (d. 11 November 1855).

1813 Charles William Schaeffer, hymn translator and president of the General Synod, was born in Hagerstown, Maryland (d. 15 March 1896).

1815 Ithamar Conkey, New England music artist and composer, was born in Shutesbury, Maryland (d. 30 April 1867).

1816 The American Bible Society (ABS) was organized in New York to distribute Bibles throughout the world.

1837 David Frederick Schaeffer, president of the General Synod, died (b. 22 July 1787, Carlisle, Pennsylvania).

1846 Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish novelist, was born in Wola Orkrzejska, Poland (d. 15 November 1916). His best-known work is Quo Vadis.

1876 The German Augsburg Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (the Augsburg Synod), a Lutheran synod in the Mississippi Valley, was organized.

1886 Hiester Henry Muhlenberg, treasurer of the General Council, died (b. 15 January 1812).

1888 Johann Friedrich Karl Keil (b. 26 February 1807), German Lutheran Old Testament scholar, died.

1904 Theodore Gerhardt Tappert, Lutheran author, translator and editor of the Book of Concord, was born in Meriden, Connecticut (d. 25 December 1973).

1910 Alexander McLaren, a great non-conformist (non-Anglican) preacher, died (b. 1826).

1925 Dayton, Tennessee, teacher John Scopes (1900–1970) was arrested for teaching evolution in his classroom. He did so on purpose to test a law prohibiting such teaching. The resulting trial—the first “trial of the century”—resulted in public mockery of fundamentalist Christians, driving them into a more self-contained subculture.

1929 The first Missouri Synod service was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.