1253 Saint Clare of Assisi, founder of the Poor Clares, died (b. 16 July 1194).

1464 Nicholas of Cusa, German cardinal of the Catholic Church, a philosopher, jurist, mathematician, and an astronomer, died (b. 1401).

1519 Johann Tetzel, a Dominican monk whose sale of indulgences compelled an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther to post his Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenberg, setting off the Protestant Reformation, died (b. 1465).

1527 The Zurich town council agreed to suppress the Anabaptists.

1558 Justus Menius, Lutheran reformer of Thuringia, died (b. 13 December 1499, Fulda, Germany).

1654 Jacob Fabricius, hymnist, died (b. 19 July 1593, Köslin, Pomerania).

1673 Robert Barclay (ca. 1648–1690), a Quaker, completed a Catechism and Confession of Faith, his first mature work.

1699 German nobleman Friedrich R. L. von Canitz (b. 27 November 1654, Berlin), German statesman, poet and hymnist, died in Berlin. [German Wikipedia article]

1778 Augustus Montague Toplady, hymnist, died (b. 4 November 1740).

1844 Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg, Lutheran pastor and congressman, died (b. 13 May 1782, Lancaster, Pennsylvania).

1845 Karl Heinrich Ferdinand Ludwig Pamperrien, missionary to India, was born in Crivitz, Mecklenburg (d. 1926).

1847 Presbyterian missionary Charles Williams Forman (d. 27 August 1894) sailed for India.

1872 Lowell Mason, composer, died in Orange, New Jersey (b. 8 January 1792).

1884 The government of Japan disestablished national religion with promises of toleration.

1890 John Henry Cardinal Newman, leader of the Oxford Movement and a hymnist, died (b. 21 February 1801).

1893 Walter Otto Kraeft, professor at Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), was born in Oregon City, Oregon (d. 30 March 1960).

1903 Alfred O. Fuerbringer was born in Saint Louis (d. 26 February 1997). After attending Concordia College (Fort Wayne, Indiana), he graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1925 and received his S.T.M. in 1927. From 1922 to 1923 he was an instructor at Concordia College (Oakland, California). He served as pastor in Norman and Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and Leavenworth, Kansas. He was president of Concordia Teachers College (Seward, Nebraska) from 1941 to 1953, when he accepted a call to the presidency of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), from which he retired in 1969.

1919 The German Republic Constitution, adopted at Weimar, declared church and state separate in Germany.

1926 Conrad Herman Louis Schuette, theologian, died at Columbus, Ohio (b. 17 June 1843).

1930 The American Lutheran Church was organized with the merger of the Ohio, Iowa and Buffalo Synods.

1933 Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr., an American fundamentalist Christian pastor and televangelist, founder of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and of Liberty University and co-founder of the Moral Majority, was born (d. 15 May 2007).

1948 The International Council of Christian Churches was formed at a meeting in Amsterdam (through 19 August).

1956 Theodore G. W. Stelzer, music professor at Concordia Teachers College (Seward, Nebraska), died near Gallup, New Mexico (b. 3 January 1892, Schluersburg, Missouri). He graduated from the Missouri Synod Teacher Seminary at Addison, Illinois, in 1910 and received training in piano and vocal music at various schools, including the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and the Detroit Conservatory of Music. He served as organist, choirmaster and principal at Lutheran schools in Racine and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from 1910 to 1927. From January 1927 until his death he was a member of the faculty at Seward and head of the departments of music and education. He also served on many boards and committees of the synod. He died in an automobile accident while traveling from Los Angeles to Colorado serving summer teaching engagements.

1992 Paul Ph. Spitz (b. 10 May 1923, Hazard, Nebraska) died at Saint Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1946 and served congregations in Wyoming, Missouri and Nebraska. He was the director of missions for the Western and Missouri Districts and served as president of the Missouri District.