January 9

1349 The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, was rounded up and incinerated.

1420 1,500 followers of John Hus (ca. 1369–1415) were killed in Kuttenberg, Bohemia.

1431 Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

1554 Pope Gregory XV was born (d. 8 July 1623).

1569 Saint Philip of Moscow (b. 1507), primate of the Russian Orthodox Church who was murdered by Czar Ivan IV (“Ivan the Terrible”), is commemorated.

1575 Conrad Dietrich, subdiaconus at Marburg and author of an exposition of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism that was used in the Missouri Synod for many years, was born in Gemuende, Hessen-Cassel (d. 1639).

1667 Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676), hymnist, was reinstated as pastor in Berlin.

1696 Sebastian Schmidt (Schmid), professor of theology, died (b. 1617, Lampertheim, Alsace).

1709 Peter Nicholas (Nicolaus) Sommer, Lutheran pastor in New York, was born at Hamburg, Germany (d. 27 October 1795).

1829 Peder Andreas Rasmussen, who helped found the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, was born in Stavanger, Norway (d. 15 August 1898).

1836 Peter Reinhold Grundemann, founder of the Brandenburg Missionary Conference, was born at Bärwalde, near Berlin (d. 1924).

1836 The first Roman Catholic college to be founded in the deep South, Spring Hill College, was established in Spring Hill, Arkansas.

1849 Markus Olaus Böckman, professor of theology at Saint Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota) and Augsburg Seminary (Minneapolis), was born in Langesund, Norway (d. 21 July 1942).

1850 The first day of class was held at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) after its move from Perry County, Missouri.

1858 Joseph A. Robinson, hymnist, was born at Keynsham, Somerset, England (d. 7 May 1933, Upton Noble, Somerset, England).

1912 Elias Zoghby, retired Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Baalbek and a leading advocate of Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism, was born.

1913 Karl Georg Stöckhardt, Bible exegete, author and theologian, died (b. 17 February 1842).

1924 British Armenian scholar Frederick C. Conybeare died (b. 1856).

1970 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons), after 140 years of unofficial discrimination against blacks within the church, issued an official letter stating their position on race relations within the church: “Joseph Smith and all succeeding presidents of the church have taught that Negroes, while spirit children of a common father and the progeny of our earthly parents Adam and Eve, were not yet to receive the priesthood, for reasons which we believe are known to God but which He has not made fully known to man.”