451 The Council of Chalcedon opened near Istanbul. The fourth ecumenical council of the ancient church, it was attended by 450 bishops. Seventeen sessions were held before 1 November. The council condemned monophysitism or Eutychianism, the ancient Christological heresy denying the full humanity of Christ by teaching that the incarnate Son of God possessed only one (“mono”) nature (“physis”): the divine. The council also condemned the monophysite Robber Synod of Ephesus (449).

1438 The “Filioque” debate at the Council of Florence began, lasting until 13 December.

1585 Heinrich Schütz, composer, was born (d. 6 November 1672).

1649 Dutch Lutheran settlers in New Netherland (New York) appealed to Lutherans in Amsterdam for a pastor. This was the first petition for a Lutheran pastor in America.

1656 John George I, Elector of Saxony, died (b. 5 March 1585).

1659 Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary and historian, died (b. ca. 1603).

1847 Gjermund Hoyme, Norwegian American Lutheran leader and pastor, was born in Valdres, Norway (d. 9 June 1902).

1850 Thomas Theron Alexander was born in Horet, Tennessee (d. 14 November 1902).

1862 Carl Frederick Graebner, president of the Lutheran college and seminary in Adelaide, Australia, was born at Saint Charles, Missouri (d. 5 June 1949).

1863 Richard Whately, hymnist, died (b. 1 February 1787).

1870 Oscar John Johnson, president of Luther College (Wahoo, Nebraska) and Gustavus Adolphus College (Saint Peter, Minnesota), was born in Cleburne, Kansas (d. 9 March 1946).

1880 Magnus B. Langstad, hymnist, died in Christiana, Norway (b. 7 October 1802).

1882 Walter Russell Bowie, American Episcopalian theologian, was born in Richmond, Virginia (d. 23 April 1969).

1904 Ernst H. Stahlke was born in Hamburg, Minnesota (d. 25 May 1986). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1928 and served as a pastor in Saskatchewan, Canada, and at Prairie, Gaylord and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was also a member of the Missouri Synod Board of Directors, a circuit counselor, member of the district board of directors and secretary and president of the Minnesota South District. He retired in 1971.

1914 Robert W. (Bob) Pierce, American evangelist and founder of World Vision, was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Ordained in 1940, Pierce was an evangelist beginning in 1937. This work took him to Japan, Korea and the Philippines. His compassion for the suffering he saw while in Asia led him to found World Vision International, a worldwide relief organization, in 1950. In 1967 he resigned as president of W.V.I. and founded Samaritan’s Purse, a fund-raising agency supporting relief in Asia. Pierce died of leukemia in 1978.

1927 Jim Elliot, American missionary to Ecuador, was born (d. 8 January 1956).

1936 Jonathan Goforth, Presbyterian missionary to China, died (b. 1859).