1594 Orlande de Lassus, composer, died (b. ca. 1532).

1645 English Civil War: In the Battle of Naseby, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.

1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), was born in Litchfield, Connecticut (d. 1 July 1896).

1837 William Chatterton Dix, hymnist, was born in Bristol, England (d. 9 September 1898).

1883 Eliza Agnew, Presbyterian missionary to Ceylon, died in Manepay, Ceylon (b. 2 February 1807).

1883 Charles Timothy Brooks, hymn translator, died (b. 30 June 1813).

1889 The Christian Social Union was founded in England.

1901 Ralph E. Hudson (b. 12 July 1843), American Methodist clergyman and music publisher, died.

1903 The statue of Martin Luther, located on the campus of Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, was dedicated on this day at its Jefferson Avenue Campus. When the new Clayton campus was built in the mid-1920s it was moved to its present location opposite the Walther Arch. It was the second Martin Luther statue by Ernst Rietschel to be dedicated in the United States, the first being in Washington, D.C. in 1884.

1918 The Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized (through June 19) in Lima Creek Church, near Lake Mills, Iowa.

1936 English author and journalist G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton died (b. 29 May 1874).

1945 A School of Missions was initiated at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis).

1948 Cardinal József Mindszenty (1892–1975) ordered church bells tolled throughout Hungary in protest of the nation’s secularization law.

1949 Archbishop Josef Beran (1888–1969) of Czechoslovakia tried to preach his Corpus Christi sermon in the Cathedral of Saint Vitus, but Communist agitators broke it up with catcalls.

1956 President Eisenhower signed a congressional resolution that added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

1966 The Vatican abolished the Index of Prohibited Books, established in 1557 by the Congregation of the Inquisition under Pope Paul IV.

1984 The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution opposing the ordination of women for ministry in the Baptist church. The resolution was made nonbinding for local congregations and did not apply to women who had already been ordained for ministry.

1985 A group with alleged links to Hezbollah hijacked TWA Flight 847. LCMS pastor Benjamin C. (“Christian”) Zimmermann, a TWA pilot, was flight engineer on the flight. Hostage in a Hostage World: Hope aboard Hijacked TWA 847 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985) is his account of that experience.