1511 Paul Eber, hymnist, hymn translator and poet, was born in Kitzingen, Bavaria (d. 10 December 1569).

1520 To establish a claim to the Swedish throne, Christian II of Denmark and Norway (1481–1559) repeatedly attacked Sweden. The third attack (1520) succeeded.

1527  Jerome (or Hieronymus) Emser, antagonist of Martin Luther, died (b. 20 March 1477).

1674 John Milton, philosopher, hymnist, poet and theologian, died (b. 9 December 1608).

1827 Gotthardt Dellman Bernheim, Lutheran pastor and educator in the Carolinas, was born in Prussia (d. 25 October 1916).

1837 Mount Holyoke Female Seminary opened in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first college in the U.S. established specifically for the education of women.

1839 August Wilhelm Schreiber, missionary to Indonesia, was born (d. 22 March 1903).

1840 George Hugh Bourne, an Anglican clergyman and hymnist, was born at Saint Paul’s Cray, Kent, England (d. 1 December 1925).

1843 Carl Christoph Schmidt, president of the Western District from 1891 to 1898 and vice-president of the Missouri Synod from 1899 to 1908, was born in Bonfeld, Wuerttemberg (d. 14 October 1925).

1847 Hermann Daniel Uhlig, pioneer deaf missionary, was born (d. 15 August 1913).

1849 The first cornerstone was laid for Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis.

1855 Solomon Erb Ochsenford, professor at Muhlenberg College (1899–1909), was born near New Hanover, Douglass Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (d. 19 June 1932).

1876 John Caspar Mattes, professor at Wartburg Theological Seminary (Dubuque, Iowa) from 1939 to 1948 and hymn translator, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania (d. 27 January 1948).

1877 Rebekah Hope Taylor (nee Morley), hymn translator, died. She was a daughter of S. Morley, M.P., and married H. W. Taylor, a member of the Plymouth Brethren. She contributed to the  Enlarged London Hymn Book (1873). Her Letters  were published in 1878. [The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, comp. W. G. Polack (Saint Louis: CPH, 1942): 586]

1887 Rhenish Mission work began in New Guinea.

1889 Oswald J. Smith, Canadian clergyman, author and composer of hymns, was born (d. 25 January 1986).

1904 Émile Combs (1835–1921), French anti-clericalist politician, introduced a bill for the separation of church and state in France. The bill passed in December 1905, thereby ending the Concordat of 1801 and allowing complete liberty of conscience.

1905 Otto Daniel August Hoyer, professor and director at Dr. Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minnesota); director of Michigan Lutheran Seminary (Saginaw, Michigan), a secondary school of the Michigan Synod; and professor and inspector at Northwestern College (Watertown, Wisconsin), died (b. 17 November 1849, Hamburg, Germany).

1920 Abraham Kuyper (b. 29 October 1837), Dutch Calvinist theologian and statesman, died.

1925 Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, Illinois, was dedicated.

1953 Kosaku Nao, the first Missouri Synod Japanese pastor, was installed at Kugenuma.