John of Damascus, Theologian and Hymnwriter

1093 Anselm (ca. 1033/34–1109) was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury.

1154 Adrian IV (ca. 1100–1159) was elected pope.

1563 The final session of the Council of Trent concluded.

1584 John Cotton, early Massachusetts Bay pastor, was born at Derby, England (d. 23 December 1652).

1642 Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu (b. 9 September 1585), French cardinal and politician, died.

1674 French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) erected a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan in Illinois.

1676 Johann Georg Ebeling, composer, died (b. 8 July 1637 at Lüneburg, Germany).

1714 Israel Acrelius, provost of Swedish Lutheran churches in Delaware, was born (d. 25 April 1800).

1779 Thomas Cotterill, hymnist, was born at Cannock, Staffordshire, England (d. 29 December 1823, Sheffield, England).

1804 John Kitto, English writer who set a new pattern for biblical encyclopedias by combining articles on religion, scholarly
biography, rabbinical literature and archeology in the same work, was born (d. 1854).

1809 The International Bible Society was founded in New York City as an interdenominational agency for translating, producing and distributing the Scriptures.

1831 Martin Günther, professor at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), was born in Dresden, Germany (d. 22 May 1893).

1836 Daniel Read, hymn translator, died (b. 16 November 1757, Attleboro, Massachusetts).

1842 Old Trinity Lutheran Church (Saint Louis) was dedicated by the recently arrived Saxon Lutherans.

1844 John Samuel Norris, American Methodist clergyman and hymnist, was born in West Cowes, Isle of Wight, England (d. 23 September 1907, Chicago, Illinois).

1848 Joseph Mohr, hymnist, died at Wagrein (b. 11 December 1792, Salzburg, Austria).

1859 Joseph S. Cook, Canadian clergyman and hymnist, was born in Durham County, England (d. 27 May 1933, Toronto, Canada).

1861 At a meeting in Augusta, Georgia, forty-seven southern presbyteries met to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, separating themselves from the northern Presbyterians.

1866 Albert Tobias Clay, archaeologist and orientalist, was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania (d. 14 September 1925).

1874 Fifteen years after a government decree granted citizens full religious liberty, Mexico forbad religious instruction in all federal, state and municipal schools.

1880 Pedro Cardinal Segura y Sáenz, archbishop of Toledo, Spain, from 1927 to 1931 and of Seville from 1937 until his death, was born (d. 8 April 1957). In July 1931 he was sent into exile in France by the Republican government, whom he had publicly denounced while extolling the monarchy.

1899 Walter Edwin Buszin, professor of liturgics, hymnology and homiletics at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 2 July 1973).

1922 John Hampton, composer, died (b. 7 February 1834, London, England).

1930 In response to the Anglican Lambeth Conference, which cautiously approved birth control, Pope Pius XI (1857–1939) issued the encyclical  Casti connubii.

1942 Roland Victor Bingham, missionary to the Sudan, died (b. 1872).

1944 The first missionaries sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship were sent out from the U.S. to Mexico.

1952 The Canadian Lutheran Council was organized in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1963 The Second Session of the Second Vatican Council closed.

1976 The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was formed in Chicago, Illinois.

1991 George J. Beto, president of two Missouri Synod schools and director of the Texas Department of Corrections, died in Austin, Texas (b. 19 January 1916, Hysham, Montana). Beto was dean of Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice and director of its Criminal Justice Center. He also was president of Concordia Lutheran College (now Concordia University, Austin, Texas) from 1949 to 1959 and of Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois, now located at Fort Wayne, Indiana) from 1959 to 1962.