February 14
869 Cyril, monk and missionary to the Slavs,
is commemorated (b. 827).
885 Methodius, bishop and missionary to Slavs,
is commemorated.
1014
Pope Benedict VIII (d. 9 April 1024) recognized
Henry of Bavaria (973–1024) as
king of Germany.
1076
Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1015–1085)
excommunicated
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1050–1106).
1488 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III
(1415–1493) established the
Great
Swabian League, a confederation of twenty-two German
cities in the Duchy of Swabia (parts of modern-day Baden,
Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Switzerland).
1556 Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556)
was deposed as Archbishop of Canterbury by Mary I.
1760 Richard Allen, black American church
leader, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 26 March
1831).
1772 Heinrich Huet (descendants spell the name
Hewitt), Ohio Synod pastor, was born near Hagerstown,
Maryland (d. 16 February 1855).
1779 Jacob Henkel, early American Lutheran
pastor, died (b. 14 March 1733).
1784 Christoph C. L. von Pfeil, hymnist, died
(b. 1712, Grünstadt, near Worms).
1818 Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was born into slavery
in Talbot County, Maryland (d. 20 February 1895).
1826 Johann Daniel Falk, hymnist, died (b. 28
October 1768, Danzig).
1834 “Fight
the Good Fight with All Your Might”
was written on this date by John S. B. Monsell (1811–1875),
vicar of Guilford.
1843 James William Richard, Reformation
historian, was born near Winchester, Virginia (d. 7 March
1909).
1843
Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, Methodist clergyman, was born in
New York City (d. 2 August 1930). After holding pastorates
in New Jersey and New York between 1865 and 1879, he was
appointed to the Methodist Sunday School Union, working with
them from 1879 to 1900. He wrote thirty books on Bible
study, Bible history and Sunday school work. One of his most
popular works was Story of Jesus (1915).
1884 Luther B. Bridgers, southern American
Methodist pastor and evangelist, was born in Margaretsville,
North Carolina (d. 27 May 1948, Atlanta, Georgia).
1887 Christian Thomas Wetzstein,
president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan District of the LCMS
(1927–1929), was born in Sac
County, Iowa (d. 31 October 1978, South Lyon, Michigan). A
1909 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary
(Springfield, Illinois), Wetzstein served congregations and
preaching stations in northwest Canada, Saskatchewan and
Ontario. After he left Canada, he continued to serve several
vacant congregations in Indiana and Michigan until 1967.
Wetzstein is said to have organized twenty-four
congregations and to have served thirty-two congregations
from his vicarage year in 1907 in Texas to his last parish
at Burlington, Michigan.
1892 Robert H. Pfeiffer, American
Methodist biblical scholar, was born in Bologna, Italy (d.
1958). He directed archeological excavations at Nuzi between
1928 and 1929, edited the Journal of Biblical Literature
from 1943 to 1947 and served as president of the Society of
Biblical Literature in 1950. Considered a liberal scholar by
many fundamentalists of his day, Pfeiffer's major
contributions were in the fields of Old Testament and
Assyriology.
1896 Arnold Krentz was born in
Dorchester, Wisconsin (d. 15 March 1961, Fort Wayne,
Indiana). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis)
in 1920 and served as a pastor in Canada and Michigan. From
1941 to 1961 he served as superintendent of the
Lutheran Deaconess Association of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
During that time he also taught at Valparaiso University.
1906 Lorenz C. Wunderlich was born in
Waco, Texas (d. 19 September 1993, Orlando, Florida). He
graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1927 and
served congregations in Indiana, Kansas and Missouri. He
served on the Missouri Synod Hymnody Commission, Literary
Review for Publication, and Appeals and Adjudication
Commission. He served the Kansas District as treasurer and
Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) as registrar.
1913 James A. Pike, controversial American
Episcopal bishop, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (d.
1969).
1914 Ira F. Stanphill, American song
evangelist, was born in Bellview, New Mexico (d. 30 December
1993).
1926 The first four trained evangelists
graduated from the Hankow Seminary in China.
1949 Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952)
was elected as the first president of modern Israel.
1952 Francis H. Rowley (b. 25 July 1854),
American Baptist clergyman and humanitarian, died.
1958 Edward Shippen Barnes, musician and
arranger, died in Idyllwild, California (b. 14 September
1887, Seabright, New Jersey).
