1312 The Council of Vienne ended. The Knights Templars were suppressed by Pope Clement V at this council.
1527 Charles V’s (1500–1558) army, including German, French and Spanish troops, sacked Rome. Pope Clement VII barely escaped to a castle.
1536 King Henry VIII (1491–1547) ordered translated Bibles to be placed in every church.
1542 Francis Xavier (1506–1552), co-founder of the Jesuits and missionary for them, landed at Goa, India.
1576 A meeting of theologians was called at Torgau (through 7 June). It concluded with the Torgau Book, a precursor of the Formula of Concord.
1635 Job Lepner, mayor of Koenigsberg Alstadt, unforgettable lover and promoter of music, died. “Oh, How Blest Are You” was written by Simon Dach (1605–1659) as a memorial to Lepner.
1638 Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen, who inspired a reform movement within the Roman Catholic church, died (b. 28 October 1585).
1646 Presbyterians petition Massachusetts for tolerance, but their leader, Robert Child, was eventually banished.
1704 Non-Anglicans were excluded from membership in South Carolina’s assembly.
1708 François de Laval, first bishop of New France, died (b. 30 April 1623).
1746 William Tennent (b. 1673), Irish-born colonial American clergyman, died.
1797 Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer of the Shaker community, was born (d. 4 July 1882).
1809 William Walker, composer, was born (d. 24 September 1875, Spartanburg, South Carolina).
1816 Adolph Friedrich Theodor Biewend, early Missouri Synod professor, was born in Rothehuette, Hannover (d. 10 April 1858).
1835 John T. Grape, American Methodist layman and composer, was born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2 November 1915, Baltimore).
1840 Father Demetrius A. Gallitzin (b. 22 December 1770), “Apostle of the Alleghenies,” died.
1847 The organizational meeting of the Missouri Synod in Chicago ended (began 25 April).
1847 Carl H. F. Frincke (1824–1905) was commissioned as the first home missionary of the Missouri Synod.
1867 George Washington Truett, American Southern Baptist preacher, was born in Clay County, North Carolina (d. 7 July 1944).
1891 Albert John Charles Moeller, president of Saint Paul’s College (Concordia, Missouri), was born in Barnes, Kansas (d. 21 November 1950).
1891 The Rocky Mountain Synod was organized at Manitou, Colorado, by nine pastors and two laymen. Its territory included Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. It merged with the United Lutheran Church in 1918.
1893 The first meeting of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Missouri Synod was held.
1947 Ludwig Ernest Fuerbringer, theologian, professor, author and president of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), died (b. 29 March 1864).
2001 During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) became the first pope to enter a mosque.