1286 Abulfaraj (Abu al-Faraj ibn Harun, common called Bar Hebraeus; his real name was Gregory), Syriac writer and bishop, died at Maragha, Azerbaijan, Persia (b. 1226).

1540 Robert Barnes (b. 1495) was burned at the stake for his conversion to and following the faith of Martin Luther.

1715 Nahum Tate (b. 1652, Dublin), Anglo-Irish poet, playwright and hymnist, died.

1718 William Penn (b. 14 October 1644), founder of Pennsylvania as a colony for Quakers to experience religious liberty, died.

1726 William Jones, Anglican divine, was born (d. 6 January 1800).

1750 Christian Friedrich Schwarz (1726–1798), one of the foremost Lutheran missionaries in India, arrived in Tranquebar.

1868 August F. C. Vilmar (b. 21 November 1800), German Lutheran theologian, died. [German Wikipedia article]

1874 John Henry Charles Fritz, dean of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), was born at Martin’s Ferry, Ohio (d. 12 April 1953).

1913 May Fawler Maude, hymnist, died (b. Mary Hooper, 25 October 1819, Bloomsbury, London, England).

1927 James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, African educator and missionary (b. 1875), died.

1956 “In God We Trust” became the official motto of the United States by an act of Congress signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1959 Albert Herrman Miller, professor at Concordia Teachers College (Addison and River Forest, Illinois), died (b. Terryville, Connecticut, 23 January 1864).

1968 Namuera Te Punga, native Maori Missouri Synod pastor, died (b. 16 August 1880, Lower Hutt, New Zealand).

1976 Rudolph Bultmann (b. 1884), German New Testament scholar, died.