235 Anterus was elected pope, a position he would hold for only a few weeks (d. 3 January 236).
496 Pope Gelasius I, the third pope of African origin, died.
615 Columbanus, missionary scholarly Irish monk, died in Bobbio, Italy (b. ca. 543).
1495 John Bale, English churchman, historian, controversialist and Bishop of Ossory, was born (d. November 1563).
1575 Augustus, Elector of Saxony (1526–1586), called for one evangelical “corpus doctrinae.”
1638 A general assembly at Glasgow (through 20 December) abolished the episcopal form of church government, adopted the presbyterian form in its place, settled liturgy and canons and gave final constitutional form to the Church of Scotland.
1695 Henry Purcell, English organist and composer of church music, died (b. 10 September 1659).
1768 F. D. E. (Friedrich) Schleiermacher, German theologian/philosopher, was born in Breslau, Germany (d. 12 February 1834).
1806 Gottlieb C. A. von Harless, German Lutheran theologian, was born at Nürnberg, Germany (d. 5 September 1879).
1837 John Henry Yates, American clergyman and Gospel song writer, was born in Batavia, New York (d. 5 September 1900, Batavia, New York).
1852 The Union Institute was chartered by the Methodists in Randolph County, North Carolina, as a normal college. The school was renamed Trinity College in 1859. Its campus was moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 1892. On receipt of a $40 million endowment from tobacco magnate James B. Duke in 1924, Trinity changed its name to Duke University.
1873 A papal encyclical of Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) condemned the “Old Catholic” movement, which rejected the papal infallibility decree of the First Vatican Council.
1877 Henry Grueber was born in Frankenmuth, Michigan (d. 13 February 1959, Milwaukee). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1901 and served as pastor at Mount Pleasant (1901–1905) and Saginaw, Michigan (1905–1919), and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1919–1948). He was president of the South Wisconsin District of the Missouri Synod from 1921 to 1932 and vice-president of the synod from 1932 to 1947. He also served as the first chairman of the synod’s Board for Higher Education from 1932 to 1951.
1907 Jim Bishop, American journalist and author, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 26 July 1987). Bishop gave new life to great historical moments through his books, including the chronicle The Day Christ Died (1957).
1909 Andreas Schrödel, president of Minnesota District of the Wisconsin Synod, died (b. 29 January 1851, Neustadt, Bavaria).
1938 Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen, member of the Missouri Synod Board of Directors, died (b. 30 September 1859, Sterley, Lauenburg, Germany).
1948 The religious program Lamp unto My Feet first aired over CBS television. The Sunday morning broadcast featured programs on cultural as well as religious themes. It was produced for CBS News by Pamela Ilott and became one of TV’s longest-running network shows, airing through January 1979.
1950 Albert John Charles Moeller, president of Saint Paul’s College (Concordia, Missouri), died (b. 6 May 1891, Barnes, Kansas).
1954 Werner Elert, German Lutheran historian and systematician, died (b. 19 August 1885).
1962 Ciro Mejia was ordained as the first Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Central American pastor.
1964 The third session of the Second Vatican Council closed.
1984 David Ernesto Fernandez was murdered in El Salvador. Fernandez served as pastor of ten congregations in eastern El Salvador that were part of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod, a church in partnership with the Missouri Synod.