933 Adalward of Verden, Anglo-Saxon missionary, died. He became bishop of Verden in 913. [German Wikipedia article]

1466 Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and Greek scholar, was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 12 July 1536).

1516 Martin Luther began his lectures on Galatians.

1553 Michael Servetus, Spanish anti-Trinitarian theologian, was burned at Geneva (b. 29 September 1511 at Tudela).

1573 Laurentius Petri, Swedish reformer and first Lutheran archbishop of Uppsala, died (b. 1499, Örebro, Sweden).

1659 William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson became the first Quakers hanged in Massachusetts. They had violated the laws of 1658, which forbade Quakers from returning to Massachusetts once they had been banished.

1682 English Quaker colonist and founder of Pennsylvania William Penn (1644–1718) arrived in America.

1771 Pioneer bishops Francis Asbury (1745–1816) and Richard Wright arrived in Philadelphia after having been sent from England by John Wesley to preach Methodism in America.

1795 Peter Nicholas Sommer, Lutheran pastor in New York, died (b. 9 January 1709, Hamburg, Germany).

1814 John McClintock, American Methodist clergyman and scholar, was born in Philadelphia (d. 4 March 1870).

1827 Henry U. Onderdonk (1789–1858), hymnist, was consecrated at Philadelphia as assistant bishop.

1851 Gottlieb Bender Christiansen, professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Blair, Nebraska) and president of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was born at Vejlby, Denmark (d. 27 September 1929).

1855 The Synod of Northern Indiana was organized at Columbia City, Indiana, by former members of the Olive Branch and
Wittenberg synods. It soon united with the General Synod.

1885 Wilhelm Sihler, a co-founder and vice-president of the Missouri Synod, died (b. 12 November 1801).

1889 Sylvester Clarence Michelfelder, Lutheran World Federation leader, was born in New Washington, Ohio (d. 30 September 1951).

1903 Seminário Concórdia was founded in Bom Jesus, Brazil, some 150 miles from Porto Alegre. After the school closed for a time when the pastor/president/professor Johann Friedrich Hartmeister (1877–1965) had to return to the United States, the church decided to reopen the school in Porto Alegre on 30 May 1907.

1932 Carl Frederick Lehenbauer, president of the Kansas District of the Missouri Synod, died (b. 24 February 1877, West Ely, Missouri). He was educated at Saint Paul’s College (Concordia, Missouri), Northwestern College (Watertown, Wisconsin) and Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis). He graduated in 1900 and became a pastor at Norman, Oklahoma. In 1901 he was called to Union City, Oklahoma, and carried on extensive mission work throughout southwestern Oklahoma. In 1909 he became pastor of Zion Lutheran Church (Linn, Kansas), and in 1923 he was called to Saint John Lutheran Church (Alma, Kansas). In 1916 he became a member of the mission board of the Kansas District and in 1919 was elected district president.

1977 Louise Rathke, the first trained deaconess to serve in India, died at Valparaiso, Indiana. In 1925 Rathke graduated from the deaconess training course at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a member of that course’s first class. Prior to her service in India, Rathke served about six months at the Apache Indian Mission in Arizona. Her work in India with women and nursing began in 1926. She continued to serve there until 1962, when she returned to Kansas to care for her ill mother. Reflecting on her service in India at the 1977 annual deaconess conference, Rathke said, “We suffered some hardships, but we experienced many rewards as people came to know the Gospel.”

1978 The complete New International Version of the Bible was published by Zondervan Publishers of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

1978 Seminario Concordia in Porto Alegre, Brazil, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Initiated in 1903, the school was started a year before the Brazil District of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod was formally organized. Three students attended the first classes conducted by Rev. John Hartmeister in a local chapel at Bom Jesus de Sao Lourenco. In 1978 the seminary enrolled 89 students.