1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks under Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire and the Middle Ages. The city, the capital of Eastern Christianity since 324, was renamed Istanbul, and the Ottoman Empire began. The lavish cathedral, Hagia Sophia, was converted into a mosque.

1529 Jakob Kaiser, pastor at Zurich, was burned at the stake.

1536 The Wittenberg Concord between Lutheran and Swiss theologians was signed.

1536 Pope Paul III (1468–1549) called a council to begin 12 May 1538 in response to the Reformation movement on the continent. Only five bishops appeared in Cenza. After six weeks Paul deferred the council’s opening date. Not until 1 November 1542, after three summonses, did the council finally meet-at Trent. Even then few bishops showed up, but Trent became one of the most important Roman Catholic councils.

1577 The Formula of Concord was subscribed to by its authors.

1619 The Synod of Dort, Netherlands, an anti-Arminian gathering, after sentencing the political leader Barneveld to death and the scholarly Hugo Grotius to life imprisonment, dissolved itself.

1637 Juraj (Jiri, George) Tranovsky (Trzanowski, Tranoscius), the “Slavonic Luther,ˮ a hymnist, died (b. 27 March 1592 O.S. [9 April N.S.]). [German Wikipedia article]

1722 Laurenti Laurentius, hymnist, died (b. 8 June 1660).

1788 In Philadelphia the Westminster larger and shorter catechisms were approved as part of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church.

1819 William Julius Mann, leader of the General Council, was born in Stuttgart, Germany (d. 20 June 1892).

1865 Otto Gustav Alfred Rahlfs, Lutheran Old Testament scholar, was born near Hanover, Germany (d. 1935).

1874 English novelist, essayist, poet, and journalist G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton was born in London (d. 14 June 1936).

1878 Phineas R. Hunt, printer and missionary to Madras and Peking, died (b. 30 January 1816).

1905 Heinrich Christian Schwan (b. 5 April 1819), third president of the Missouri Synod (1878–1899), died in Cleveland, Ohio.

1912 The Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society for China was incorporated by Eduard Louis Arndt (1864–1929).

1919 Second meeting of Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church took place in Albert Lea, Minnesota (through June 4). The constitution of the new church body was completed and adopted, and officers were elected for a two-year period. This church body, today known as the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, consisted of congregations and pastors who declined to participate in the merger that formed the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America in 1917.

1927 The new building for radio station KFUO was dedicated on the campus of the Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis).

1934 The Barmen Declaration was issued by the confessing church in Germany. It repudiated certain tenets of the Hitler regime.

1936 Percy Dearmer, hymn translator, died in London (b. 27 February 1867).

1954 Pope Pius X (1835–1914) was canonized.

1983 The LCMS International Center was dedicated in Saint Louis.