February 29

1528 Patrick Hamilton, the first Lutheran preacher in Scotland, was martyred (b. ca. 1504).

1604 John Whitgift (b. ca. 1530), the Anglican archbishop who attended Queen Elizabeth I on her deathbed and crowned James I king of England, died.

1692 John Byrom, hymnist, was born at Manchester, England (d. 26 September 1763).

1692 The Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts began when Tituba, the female Indian servant of the Rev. Samuel Parris family, and Sarah Good were both accused of witchcraft.

1736 Ann Lee, religious mystic, was born in Manchester, England (d. 8 September 1784).

1960 Thomas O. Chisholm (b. 29 July 1866), American Methodist hymn writer, died.

1996 Walter R. Roehrs died in Keller, Texas (b. 24 August 1901). He graduated from Concordia College (Milwaukee) in 1920 and Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1925. He continued his education at the University of Chicago, earning his M.A. in 1926. He was ordained at Grace Lutheran Church (Western Ridge, Illinois) in June 1926 and served there until 1930. He then became a professor at Saint Paul's College (Concordia, Missouri). In 1941 he was called to teach at Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), and in 1944 he was called to the Saint Louis seminary, where he remained active until 1968. He taught exegetical theology for twenty-four years and in 1991 received the seminary’s distinguished alumnus award. He also was a member of the Missouri Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations and the Church Literature Committee of Concordia Publishing House and an editor of the Concordia Theological Monthly. He retired in 1969.