January 7

1536 Catherine of Aragon, whose divorce from Henry VIII was the catalyst for the English Reformation, died (b. 16 December 1485).

1537 The Saxon Elector John Frederick I (1503–1554) expressed his thanks to Martin Luther for having drawn up the Smalcald Articles.

1546 Luther preached his last sermon at Wittenberg.

1590 Jakob Andreae, theologian, reformer and leader in the drafting of the Formula of Concord, died (b. 25 March 1528). He introduced Lutheranism to much of Germany.

1634 Adam Krieger, composer, was born in Neumark, Prussia (d. 1666).

1659 Francis Rous (Rouse), Puritan hymnist, died in Acton, England (b. 1579, Dittisham, Devonshire [or Halton, Cornwall?], England).

1715 François Fénelon (b. 6 August 1651), French theologian and mystic, died.

1786 William C. Bouck, Lutheran governor of New York, was born in Fulton, Schoharie County, New York (d. 19 April 1859).

1828 Julius Hardeland, director of the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission, was born in Hanover (d. 11 October 1903).

1829 Frederick Whitfield, Anglican clergyman and hymnist, was born in Shropshire, England (d. 13 September 1904, Croydon, London, England).

1832 Thomas DeWitt Talmage, American Presbyterian clergyman, was born near Bound Brook, New Jersey (d. 12 July 1902).

1844 Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a French peasant girl who had several visions of the Virgin Mary in a cave near the Gave River close to her birthplace of Lourdes, was born (d. 16 April 1879).

1867 James Edmeston, hymnist, died at Homerton, Middlesex, England (b. 10 September 1791, Wapping, Middlesex, England).

1868 William B. Bradbury (b. 6 October 1816), composer, died.

1878 J. F. Doescher (1840–1916), the first Synodical Conference missionary to African Americans in the U.S., left Little Rock and traveled through Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, preaching in many cities and on many plantations.

1888 Arthur Martin Kuehnert was born in Altenburg, Missouri (d. 3 October 1974, Saint Louis). He attended Concordia College (Fort Wayne) from 1903 to 1909 and graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1912. He was a member of the Missouri Synod Board for Foreign Missions from 1923 to 1947, serving as the board's chairman from 1932 on.

1914 The first issue of the Northwestern Lutheran (Wisconsin Synod) appeared.

1918 Julius Wellhausen (b. 17 May 1844), German theologian and biblical scholar, died.

1934 Billy Sunday (1862–1935), baseball player-turned-evangelist, began a two-week revival service at the age of seventy in Calvary Baptist Church in New York City.

1940 Carl Gustaf Boberg, Swedish lay preacher and author of “How Great Thou Art,” died at Kalmer, Sweden (b. 16 August 1859, Mönsterås, Sweden).

1944 An Overture for Lutheran Unity was adopted by the executive committee of the American Lutheran Conference in Chicago.

1956 The first plane was dedicated to the LCMS mission in New Guinea. It came as a gift from Minnesota.

1983 Lawrence Acker, who served as Lutheran Hour speaker from 1950 to 1951, died at Omaha, Nebraska (b. 22 May 1892, Seymour, Indiana). Acker, who served First Lutheran Church (Omaha) from 1919 until his retirement in 1956, became Lutheran Hour speaker in June 1950 and served until the appointment of Armin C. Oldsen in the summer of 1951. He succeeded Walter A. Maier, who died in January 1950. He also served for many years as pastoral advisor to the International Lutheran Laymen’s League. He was a graduate of Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis).