685 Agilbert, second bishop of the West Saxons and afterward of Paris, died at Jouarre.

1303 Pope Boniface VIII died (b. ca. 1235).

1521 Pope Leo X (1475–1521) conferred the title of Fidei Defensor (“Defender of the Faith”) on Henry VIII of England (1491–1547) as a reward for Henry’s Defense of the Seven Sacraments, published in answer to Martin Luther’s Babylonian Captivity. Three popes and almost exactly thirteen years later, Henry established a national church, the Church of England, severing all ties with Rome.

1531 Huldrych Zwingli, militant reformer, was killed in battle of Kappel, Switzerland (b. 1 January 1484).

1675 Samuel Clarke, a well-known English divine and metaphysician who helped prepare the way for German Rationalism, was born in Norwich (d. 17 May 1729).

1718 New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar, India, was dedicated.

1725 Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop, died (b. 17 September 1639).

1820 The Maryland Synod was organized at Winchester, Virginia, by eleven pastors, including Daniel Kurtz, first president of the General Synod, Benjamin Kurtz, D. F. Schaeffer, Charles Phil. Krauth and seven lay delegates.

1834 The Synod of the West was founded by the General Synod at Jeffersontown, Kentucky, to counteract the desire on the part of some to establish an independent Kentucky Synod.

1849 Olav L. Kirkeborg, president of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was born in Valdres, Norway.

1857 Charles Scaer was born in Convoy, near Van Wert, Ohio (d. 9 June 1928).

1863 Friedrich Otto Reuter, Lutheran musician, was born (d. 9 June 1924).

1863 James Hope Moulton, English Methodist theologian, was born in Richmond, Surrey. He died 9 April 1917 while returning from a missionary tour to India.

1868 The Lutheran orphanage at Des Peres, Missouri, was dedicated.

1869 Henry John Stoeppelwerth was born in Washington, Missouri (d. 16 October 1934, Wichita, Kansas). He was a graduate of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1893 and served as the first professor at Saint John’s College (Winfield, Kansas), which had been founded in that year by John Peter Baden. He played an important part in the development of the school during his forty-one
years of service.

1892 The Joint Synod of Wisconsin was organized in Milwaukee.

1895 Avis B. Christiansen, sacred music writer, was born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 14 January 1985, Chicago).

1896 Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, died (b. 14 July 1829).

1903 Julius Hardeland, director of the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission, died (b. 7 January 1828).

1906 Herman W. Gockel was born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1 May 1996). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1931 and served as a pastor in Anna, Illinois, and Evansville, Indiana. From 1945 to 1952 he was the editor of  Today. He also served as the assistant executive secretary of the Board for Missions in North and South America. In 1948 he published his well-known book, What Jesus Means to Me. From 1951 to 1971 he wrote for and produced the television show This Is the Life.

1929 Oscar Rudolph Wold, president of the China Lutheran Church, died (b. 11 August 1874).

1932 William H. Luke, Missouri Synod Sunday school secretary and editor, died in Saint Louis of Hodgkin’s disease (b. 18 October 1896, Dillsboro, Indiana). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1919 and first served for two years as an assistant professor at Concordia College (Saint Paul, Minnesota). He served parishes in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, from 1921 to 1927, when he moved to Saint Louis and joined the synod’s Sunday school office.

1956 The Concordia House of Studies was opened in Cambridge, England.

1962 The first session of the  Second Vatican Council was opened in Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope John XXIII (1881–1963).