1253 Clare of Assisi’s (1194–1253) rule for the religious order the Poor Clares, modeled on the Franciscan order, received papal approval.

1378 French bishops declared Urban VI’s election as pope invalid. This began the great schism in which two and then three popes claimed the see of Rome at once. Once in office, Urban (ca. 1318–1389) had became overbearing.

1631 John Dryden, playwright and hymn translator, was born in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire (d. 1 May 1700).

1788 Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionary, was born at Malden, Massachusetts (d. 12 April 1850).

1804 Johannnes Mühlhäuser, founder of the Wisconsin Synod, was born in Notzingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany (d. 15 September 1868).

1835 Adam Martin, first president of Northwestern College (Watertown, Wisconsin), was born in Budershausen, Bavaria (or on 8 August; d. 18 May 1921).

1851 Karl F. A. Gützlaff, the first German Lutheran missionary to China, died in Victoria, Hong Kong (b. 8 July 1803).

1862 Gustav Ernst Bergemann, president of the Wisconsin Synod from 1917 to 1933, was born in Hustisford, Wisconsin (d. 13 May 1954).

1883 Robert Moffat, missionary to Africa, died at Leigh, England (b. 21 December 1795).

1933 William H. Draper (b. 19 December 1855), Anglican clergyman and hymn translator, died.

1942 Edith Stein (b. 21 October 1891), Jewish-Catholic philosopher, and her sister Rosa died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

1943 Franz Jagerstatter (b. 1907), an Austrian Christian, was executed for his refusal to serve in the armies of the Third Reich.

1951 Jesuit Bishop Tsiang Beda of Shanghai, China, was arrested. Asked to head China’s “reform” church, he refused and eventually died in prison.

1955 John Piepkorn, founder and vice-president of the Lutheran Laymen’s League, died.

1959 Arthur William Klinck, college and seminary professor and president, died (b. 19 January 1900).

1960 The Church of the Lutheran Confession was organized at Watertown, South Dakota.

1999 Lewis C. Niemoeller died in Springfield, Illinois (b. 1911). He was a 1935 graduate of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) and served as a pastor at Bismarck, Ironton, Pilot Knob, Saint Louis (Pine Lawn) and Glendale, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois. He served on the Missouri Synod’s Board of Higher Education as its chairman from 1974 to 1977 and as Central Illinois District second vice-president (1960–1963) and president (1963–1970).