January 19

1563 The Heidelberg Catechism was published by Reformed scholars.

1576 Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger, poet of the Reformation, shoemaker and dramatist, died (b. 5 November 1494, Nürnberg).

1576 The Swabian Concord, forerunner of the Formula of Concord, was adopted by several theologians at Maulbronn.

1805 London Mission Society lay missionary Christian Albrecht arrived in Cape Town (d. 25 July 1815).

1836 Henry L. Gilmour, Irish-born American Methodist chorister, was born in Londonderry (d. 20 May 1920).

1859 The Finnish Missionary Society was organized.

1889 The America Salvation Army split with one faction renouncing allegiance to General William Booth. Ballington and Maud Booth, General Booth's son and daughter-in-law, led the splinter group. In 1896 they incorporated as the Volunteers of America.

1900 Henry Twells, hymnist, died in Bournemouth, England (b. 23 March 1823, Ashted, Warwickshire, England).

1900 Arthur W. Klinck, president of Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois) and professor at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), was born in Elmira, Ontario, Canada (d. 9 August 1959).

1905 Johann Paul Beyer, president of the Eastern District and vice-president of the Missouri Synod, died (b. 26 June 1832, Reinwarzofen near Nuernberg, Bavaria).

1911 John F. O. Choitz was born in Ellsworth, Kansas (d. 3 September 1996, Elmhurst, Illinois). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1936 and served as a pastor in Bazine, Kansas; Iowa City, Iowa; Chicago, Illinois; and Taylor, Michigan. He also served as a professor at Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), as superintendent of Lutheran High School East (Detroit, Michigan) and as president of Michigan Lutheran College (Detroit). He retired in 1976.

1916 George J. Beto was born (d. 4 December 1991, Austin, Texas). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1939. He was president of Concordia College (Austin, Texas) from 1949 to 1959 and of Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois) from 1959 to 1962. After that he was head of the prison system in Texas.

1920 Johannes Spiecker, instructor at the Barmen Missionary Institute and director of the Rhenish Missions, died in Barmen, Germany (b. 1856).

1943 Clarence Valentine Sheatsley, American Lutheran Church mission executive, died (b. 25 November 1873, Paris, Ohio).

1949 Albertus Christiaan Kruyt, missionary to the Celebes, died (b. 10 October 1869).

1958 The first public Lutheran worship service was conducted at Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.

1992 A masked gunman shot and killed retired Lutheran missionary Albert E. Glock (b. 14 September 1925) near Jerusalem. He had been a professor of archeology at Birzeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for sixteen years.