January 5

459 Simeon Stylites, noted for living on pillars, died (b. ca. 390).

1527 Felix Manz (b. ca. 1498), Swiss Anabaptist reformer, was drowned in the Limmat River by Swiss religious authorities as punishment for his belief and practice of rebaptizing.

1547 Johann Hess, reformer of Silesia, died (b. 1490 at Nürnberg, Germany).

1743 George Whitefield (1714–1770) presided at the first Calvinist Methodist Conference held at Waterford, Wales.

1774 Nathan Strong (1748–1816), hymnist, was ordained at First Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut.

1782 Robert Morrison, first Protestant (English) missionary to China, was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, England (d. 1 August 1834).

1797 Gotthold Heinrich Loeber, Saxon immigrant pastor, was born in Kahla, Saxe-Altenburg (d. 19 August 1849, Altenburg, Missouri).

1848 Jacob Abraham Clutz, a General Synod and United Lutheran Church professor, was born in Adams County, Pennsylvania (d. 7 September 1925).

1877 Henry Sloane Coffin, American Presbyterian educator, was born in New York City (d. 25 November 1954).

1887 Margaret Mackey, hymnist, died at Cheltenham, England (b. 1802, Hedgefield, Inverness, Scotland).

1906 Kathleen Kenyon, British archaeologist who supervised a major excavation of ancient Jericho, was born (d. 24 August 1978, Wrexham, Clwyd [now in Wrexham], Wales).

1910 Timothy R. Matthews (b. 4 November 1826), English clergyman and composer, died.

1915 Revere Franklin Weidner, seminary professor and author in the General Synod, died (b. 22 November 1851 in Pennsylvania).

1943 George Washington Carver died (b. ca. 1864). He overcame the adversity of being born a slave to become a leading American educator and scientist and was also noted for his deep faith and humility.

1964 Pope Paul VI (1897–1978), during an unprecedented pilgrimage by air to the Holy Land, met with Greek Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem.

1972 In Britain the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England voted to merge. The new church was named the United Reformed Church.

1982 A federal judge in Arkansas struck down a state law requiring the teaching of the biblical theory of creation, ruling that the teaching of creation science violated the constitutional requirement of the separation of the state and organized religion.

2001 George Mohr of Brookfield, Wisconsin, a member and officer of the Missouri Synod Board of Directors from 1975 to 1989, died. Mohr was chairman of the board from 1986 to 1989 after serving three years as vice-chairman. He also held positions with the International Lutheran Laymen’s League, including South Wisconsin District president (1970–1974, 1990–1994), and was on the ILLL’s 50th and 75th anniversary committees. He was the founder and owner of Brake, Clutch and Drum Service of Milwaukee. In 1988 Mohr received the Miles Christi award from Concordia Theological Seminary (Fort Wayne, Indiana) and an honorary doctorate from Concordia College (Milwaukee).