1310 In Paris fifty-four Knights Templar were burned alive.
1522 Martin Luther published the first part of his German New Testament translation.
1631 Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly (1559–1632), destroyed Magdeburg during the
Thirty Years’ War.
1692 Anglicanism was made the state church of Maryland. Three years later this is overturned. The state had been founded by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675) to give refuge to Roman Catholics.
1812 Frances Elizabeth Cox, hymn translator, was born (c. 23 September 1897).
1816 John Charles Ryle, leader of the Evangelicals within the Church of England, was born in Cheshire (d. 10 June 1900).
1818 Arthur Cleveland Coxe, American Episcopal clergyman and hymnist, was born in Mendham, New Jersey (d. 20 July 1896).
1843 Adolph Friedrich Theodor Biewend (1816–1858) was ordained in Hannover and came to America, serving as pastor in Washington, D.C., from 1843 to 1847.
1859William Wrede, German Lutheran New Testament scholar, was born at Buecken, Germany (d. 23 November 1906). [German Wikipedia article]
1880 Sir John Goss, composer, died in Brixton, London, England (b. 27 December 1800, Fareham, Hampshire, England).
1880 Edward Hopper (1816–1888) revealed himself as author of “Jesus Savior, Pilot Me,” heretofore considered anonymous, at the anniversary of the Seamen’s Friend Society in New York.
1886 Karl Barth, Reformed theologian, was born in Basil, Switzerland (d. 10 December 1968).
1898 Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeck, Reformed missionary to Japan, died in Tokyo (b. 28 January 1830).
1904 Henry Morton Stanley, explorer and missionary to Africa, died in London (b. 28 January 1841).
1910 Anna L. Waring (b. 19 April 1823), English Quaker-turned-Anglican social reformer and hymn writer, died.
1917 Henry Barclay Swete (b. 1835), Anglican Bible and early church scholar, died.
1918 John B. Sumner, American Methodist clergyman and hymnist, died at Binghamton, New York (b. 25 March 1838, Wyalusing, Pennsylvania).
1923 Paul Philip Spitz was born in Hazard, Nebraska (d. 11 August 1992). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1946 and served congregations in Wyoming, Missouri and Nebraska. He also served as the director of missions for the Western and Missouri districts of the Missouri Synod and as president of the Missouri District.
1939 The Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church formed the Methodist Church, reuniting the denomination after 109 years of division. The Methodist Protestant Church had separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1830 and the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1844.
1948 Henry F. A. Stein, professor at Concordia College (Bronxville, New York), died (b. 29 August 1867, Baltimore, Maryland). A graduate of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), he spent two years in parish ministry in Connecticut and Massachusetts before accepting a call to the Bronxville faculty in 1892, serving as a member of that faculty until his death.