March 2

276 Mani, prophet and founder of Manichaeism, died (b. ca. 210 perhaps at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, Persia).

1160 Frederick I (Barbarossa; "Redbeard"; ca. 1122–1190), Holy Roman Emperor, was excommunicated.

1415 At the Council of Constance, convened to end the Great Schism during which three men claimed to be pope, John XXIII (one of the three) abdicated.

1459 Pope Adrian VI was born (d 14 September 1523). He was the only pope of modern times, except Marcellus II, who retained his baptismal name.

1481 Franz von Sickingen, Protestant military leader, was born at Ebernburg, near Kreuznach, Lower Palatinate (d. 7 May 1523).

1492 Ferdinand II (1452–1516), king of Castile and Aragon, banished 800,000 Jews as part of the Inquisition.

1528 The Instruction for Visitors was published, setting up guidelines for the visitation of the churches and priests in Saxony to determine the faithfulness of the pastors and churches and to set up a structure of correcting any errors. The visitation officially began on 6 September 1528.

1617 Robert Abbot, bishop of Salisbury and elder brother of George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, died at Salisbury (b. ca. 1560).

1791 John Wesley, founder of Methodism, died in London (b. 17 June 1703).

1810 Pope Leo XIII was born near Anagni, Italy (d. 20 July 1903).

1811 John S. B. Monsell, Anglican clergyman and hymnist, was born in Londonderry, Ireland (d. 9 April 1875).

1816 Tuve Nilsson Hasselquist was born in Osby, Sweden (d. 4 February 1891).

1840 Heinrich August Allwardt, president of the board of Luther Seminary, was born at Wachendorf, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany (d. 9 April 1910).

1850 Reinhold Pieper was born in Carwitz, Pomerania, Germany (d. 3 April 1920, Chatham, Illinois).

1856 Laurentius Gustav Abrahamson was born in Medaker, Sweden (d. 3 November 1946).

1860 Jacob Scherer, North Carolina Synod home missionary, died (b. 7 February 1785).

1867 The Freedman's Bureau in Washington, D.C., chartered the Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Teachers and Preachers. Named for the director of the Freedman's Bureau, Oliver Otis Howard, Howard University has become the most prestigious institution of higher learning with a predominantly African American student body.

1876 Pope Pius XII was born in Rome (d. 9 October 1958).

1902 Immanuel Lutheran College (Greensboro [Concord], North Carolina) was founded (or 1903).

1903 The first Lutheran service was held at Sao Leopoldo, Brazil.

1909 Daniel March, American Congregational clergyman and hymnist, died at Woburn, Massachusetts (b. 21 July 1816).

1921 The United Evangelical Lutheran Synod of North Carolina was organized by a merger of the the North Carolina and Tennessee synods.

1938 Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), one of the founders of the Germany Confessing Church during the Nazi era, was sentenced to seven months in prison for opposing Adolf Hitler.

1942 The Lutheran Academy for Scholarship was organized at a meeting in Chicago on 2–3 March.