January 10
236 Fabian
was elected bishop of Rome. He served until 20 January 250, when he
became the first martyr under Decius, the emperor who initiated an
Empire-wide persecution of Christians.
681 Agatho,
pope from 678 to 681, died (b. ca. 577).
1276 Pope
Gregory X died (b. ca. 1210).
1514 The first section of the
Complutensian Polyglot, the first multi-language Bible, was
printed at Alcala (Complutum in Latin), Spain, under the direction of
Arnold Guillen de Brocar.
1607 Isaac
Jogues, French Jesuit missionary among Native Americans in
North America, was born (d. 18 October 1646).
1645 The controversial archbishop
of Canterbury and leader of the Church of England William Laud
(b. 7 October 1573, Reading, Berkshire), was beheaded.
1715
Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian
who defended the position of religious orthodoxy, was born (d. 18
October 1775).
1738 The first Protestant and
Lutheran orphanage in United States was begun by the Salzburgers of
Georgia in Savannah.
1739
George Whitefield (1714–1770),
the preacher who sparked America's first Great Awakening, was ordained
into the Anglican ministry.
1831
Karl Brauer, music professor at the Missouri Synod’s Addison, Illinois,
teachers seminary, was born in Lisaberg, Hesse (d. 12 May 1907, North
Tonawanda, New York).
1834
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron of Acton,
whose hatred of arbitrary power and all forms of absolutism led him to
oppose the syllabus of errors issued by Pius IX and the promulgation of
the dogma of papal infallibility, was born in Naples (d. 19 June 1902).
1858 “I
Gave My Life to Thee”
was written by
Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879),
an English devotional poet and hymn writer, while visiting in Germany.
This was her first popular hymn.
1864
Samuel Alexander Bill, Presbyterian missionary to Nigeria,
was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland (d. 24 January 1942).
1867
William P. Merrill, hymnist, was born in Orange, New Jersey
(d. 19 June 1954, New York City).
1869 [O.S.]
Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk and mystic who influenced Tsar
Nicholas II and his family, was born (d. 16 December 1916 [O.S.])
1883
Elling Eielsen, lay preacher in Norway, Sweden and Denmark,
died (b. 1804).
1888
Peter Parker, missionary to China, died (b. 18 June 1804,
Framingham, Massachusetts).
1896
Allen W. Chatfield, hymnist, died (b. 2 October 1808,
Chatteris, Cambridge, England).
1903
Edmund Jacob Wolf, professor at the Lutheran Theological
Seminary (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) died (b. 8 December 1840).
1906
Samuel Sprecher, professor and president of Wittenberg
College (Springfield, Ohio), died (b. 28 December 1810).
1910
Carl Johann Otto Hanser, director of Concordia College (Fort
Wayne, Indiana) and member of the Board for Colored Missions of the
Lutheran Synodical Conference and of the Missouri Synod Board for
Foreign Missions, died in Saint Louis, Missouri (7 September 1832).
1914
Anton Wagner, pioneer of the Missouri Synod in Chicago, died
(b. 20 January 1830, Allendorf, near Giessen, Hesse, Germany).
1934 P. Y. Bee was ordained as the
Missouri Synod's first native Chinese pastor.
1939 Zion Chapel, Shasi, China, was
bombed out.
1984 The United States and the Vatican
established full diplomatic relations after 117 years.
2002 W. A.
Criswell, American Baptist preacher, died (b. 19 December
1909).
