January 12
690 Saint
Benedict Biscop, the Benedictine abbot and monastery builder
who introduced the stone-built church and the art of glassmaking to
England, died (b. ca. 628).
1167
Aelred (a.k.a. Ailred, Ethelred), abbot of the Cistercian
abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, England, died (b. 1110).
1519
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, died (b. 22 March 1459).
1587/8 John
Winthrop, a lawyer who became the first governor of the
Puritans in Massachusetts, was born in Suffolk, England (d. 26 March
1649, Boston).
1604 The
Hampton Court Conference, a meeting called by James I to
discuss differences between the Puritans and High Church Anglicans,
began. The King James translation of the Bible was authorized as a
result of the talks.
1670
Johann Eusebius Schmidt, hymnist, was born in Hohenfelden,
near Erfurt (d. 25 December 1745, Siebleben, near Gotha).
1730
Johann Christoph Schwedler, Silesian clergyman and hymnist,
died (b. 21 December 1672, Krobsdorf, Silesia).
1776 Peter
Muhlenberg (1746–1807)
was appointed an Army colonel.
1825 B.
F. Westcott, British New Testament scholar, was born near
Birmingham, England (d. 27 July 1901).
1826
Ernst Gustav Hermann Miessler, American Lutheran missionary
to the Chippewa Indians, was born in Reichenbach, Silesia (d. 1 March
1916).
1843 Plural
marriage was declared as the policy of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).
1847
Johan Arndt Bergh, United Norwegian Lutheran church leader,
was born in Odemark, Norway (d. 5 February 1927).
1851
Friedrich Lindemann, professor at the Missouri Synod teachers
seminary at Addison, Illinois, born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 13
December 1907).
1870
Christopher Friedrich John Drewes, director of the Lutheran
Synodical Conference Board for Colored Missions, was born in
Wolcottville, New York (d. 3 March 1931, Saint Louis).
1871 Henry Alford,
compiler of the first comprehensive English commentary on the Greek New
Testament and hymnist, died in Canterbury (b. 7 October 1810,
Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England).
1951 The Lutheran seminary at Nung
Udoe, Nigeria, was dedicated.
2001 Richard G. Kapfer, president
of the Iowa District West of the Missouri Synod from 1985 until 2000,
died in Ames, Iowa (b. 4 July 1936). In other synodical service, Kapfer
was a member and chair of the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations and a member of the Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary
(Saint Louis) and the Commission on Church Literature. He also served
as a vice-president of the Iowa District West from 1982 to 1985. A 1963
graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois),
Kapfer served as pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church (Hanover, New
Hampshire), University Lutheran Chapel (Ypsilanti, Michigan) and
Memorial Lutheran Church (Ames, Iowa). He received an honorary Litt.D.
degree from Concordia College (Saint Paul, Minnesota) in 1987.
