March 20

687 Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne and a vocal supporter (until the Synod of Whitby) of Celtic practices over Roman ones, died (b. ca. 634).

1477 Jerome Emser, German theologian and antagonist of Martin Luther, was born (d. 8 November 1527)

1572 Hieronymus Weller von Molsdorf, Luther's co-worker, died (b. 1499, Freiberg, Germany).

1593 The Augsburg Confession (Unaltered) was officially adopted by Sweden as a result of the Decree of Uppsala.

1747 David Brainerd (1718–1747), colonial American missionary, ended his labors among the Indians of New Jersey and Delaware because of his deteriorating health.

1767 Firmin Abauzit, French Reformed scholar of Huguenot parentage, died in Uzes, Languedoc (b. 1679).

1804 Cephas Bennett, printing missionary to Burma, was born in Homer, New York (d. 16 November 1885).

1806 Arthur Tozer Russell, hymn translator, was born at Northampton, England (d. 18 November 1874).

1852 American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) published her classic anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (which had been serialized in an antislavery newspaper the year before).

1856 Friedrich Berg, professor at Immanuel Lutheran College (Greensboro, North Carolina), was born at Logansport, Indiana (d. 9 March 1939).

1858 Johannes Evangelista Gossner died at Berlin (b. 14 September 1773).

1872 Fred W. Leyhe was born at Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin (d. 5 August 1950, Wolsey, South Dakota). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1895 and served as a pastor in Wolsey, South Dakota, beginning in 1895. He was vice-president of the South Dakota District from 1912 to 1921 and president of that district from 1921 to 1936.

1885 Christopher Wordsworth, Anglican clergyman and hymnist and nephew of the English poet William Wordsworth, died in Lincoln, England (b. 30 October 1807).

1889 Albrecht Ritschl (b. 25 March 1822), a leading German Protestant theologian of the latter half of the 19th century, died.

1897 Frank Sheed, Roman Catholic lay theologian and founder of Sheed and Ward, publishers of books in the areas of biography, history, philosophy, theology and literature, was born (d. 20 November 1981).

1928 Fred M. Rogers, American Presbyterian clergyman and host of public television's longest-running children's program, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania (d. 27 February 2003).

1931 The Argentine District of the Missouri Synod was legally incorporated.