1419 King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, supporter of Jan Hus (ca. 13711415), died (b. 26 February 1361).

1513 Martin Luther begins his first series of lectures as a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. He had been preparing his lectures on the Psalms for the previous ten months.

1525 John the Constant (1468–1532) issued a directive making Ernestine Saxony evangelical.

1527 Leonhard Kaiser, Lutheran vicar in Waitzenkirchen, Bavaria, was burned at the stake (b. ca. 1480, Raab, near Schärding, Bavaria). [German Wikipedia article]

1532 John the Constant, Elector of Saxony and champion of Lutheranism, died (b. 30 June 1468).

1637 Aemilie Juliane, hymnist, was born in Heidecksburg, the castle of her father’s uncle, Count Ludwig Guenther of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, where her father and family had to seek refuge during the Thirty Years’ War (d. 3 December 1706).

1639 The sister of Valentin Thilo Jr. (16071662), a pastor’s wife, died of pestilence in Koenigsberg. Stanza 3 of Ye Sons of Men, Oh, Hearken was written with her in mind.

1659 Heinrich Held, hymnist, died (b. 21 July 1620, Guhrau, Silesia).

1661 Thomas Fuller (bapt. 19 June 1608), Anglican historian, died.

1773 Pope Clement XIV (17051774) dissolved the Jesuit Order, fearing its growing power.

1815 Saint John Bosco, Roman Catholic educator, was born in Becchi, Italy (d. 31 January 1888).

1818 Eliza Alderson, sister of John B. Dykes (18231876), was born at Hull, England (d. 18 March 1889).

1852 Adolf Schlatter, Swiss Protestant New Testament scholar, was born in Saint Gall, Switzerland (d. 19 May 1938).

1859 Carl Gustaf Boberg, Swedish lay preacher and author of How Great Thou Art,was born at Moensteras, Sweden (d. 7 January 1940).

1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

1872 The English Lutheran Conference of Missouri was organized. It eventually developed into the present English District of the LCMS.

1875 American evangelist Charles Grandison Finney, the leading revivalist of the nineteenth century, died (b. 29 August 1792).

1876 The Lutheran Free Church of Saxony was organized.

1880 Hamuera Te Punga, a native Maori LCMS pastor, was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand (d. 30 July 1968).

1952 A Lutheran mission in Portugal was begun by Rudolfo Haase of Brazil.

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