June 17
362 Emperor Julian
the Apostate (331–363) ordered
that all professors and schoolmasters must obtain a license
before teaching, thus excluding Christians from educating
youth.
676
Adeodatus, Bishop of Rome from 672 to 676, died.
1576
Nikolaus Selnecker (1532–1592)
was installed as superintendent at Leipzig.
1669
Charles II (1630–1685) granted
the right to found a Lutheran congregation in England.
1693 Johann
Georg Walch, who edited Luther's Works, was born at
Meiningen (d. 13 January 1775).
1700 A Massachusetts law was passed that
allowed three months for any Roman Catholic priest to leave
the colony. If he remained, he would be arrested as "an
enemy to the true Christian religion." If found guilty, he
could be imprisoned for life or executed.
1703 The founder of Methodism, John Wesley,
was born in Epworth, England (28 June 1703 [Gregorian
calendar]; d. 2 March 1791).
1719 Joseph
Addison, hymnist, died at Holland House, Kensington (b.
1 May 1672, Milston, Wiltshire, England).
1722 The village of Herrnhut was founded
on the land of
Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760)
by Moravian religious refugees, a move that would soon lead
to the reinstitution of the Moravian Church, the Protestant
ecumenical movement and the beginnings of lay missionary
work.
1773 The Orthodox Church in Russia
published
Catherine’s (1729–1796) edict
of religious freedom.
1791
Selina Hastings, Lady Huntingdon of Wales, died (b. 24
August 1707, Stanton Harold, near Ashby-dela-Zouch,
Leicestershire, England).
1812 Pioneer America Baptist missionary Adoniram
Judson (1788–1850) and his
wife, Ann Hasseltine Judson (1789–1826),
first arrived in Calcutta, India.
1818
Charles Gounod, composer, was born in Paris, France (d.
18 October 1893).
1821 The
Danish Missionary Society was organized.
1822 The first elders were elected in what
later became the
African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church in New
York City.
1841
Matthias Henry Richards, Lutheran professor and editor,
was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 12 December
1898).
1843
Conrad Herman Louis Schuette, president of the National
Lutheran Council and hymn writer, was born in Varrel,
Hannover, Germany (d. 11 August 1926).
1846 Iowa College was chartered in
Davenport, Iowa, under the joint sponsorship of the
Congregational and Presbyterian churches. In 1849 the school
moved to Grinnell, Iowa, and was renamed Grinnell
College in 1909.
1859 J.
Wilbur Chapman, U.S. Presbyterian pastor and evangelist,
was born in Richmond, Indiana (d. 25 December 1918, New York
City).
1926 A Mission to the Blind was
established by the LCMS.
1963 Classroom prayer, including
recitation of the Lord's Prayer and Bible verses, and Bible
reading in the public schools were ruled unconstitutional by
the U.S. Supreme Court
in an 8-1 decision.
