March 26

655 Deusdedit became the first English-born Archbishop of Canterbury. He served until his death on 14 July 664.

752 Stephen II (d. 27 April 757) became bishop of Rome after a priest named Stephen had died three days after his election and before he was ordained a bishop.

1026 Pope John XIX (d. 1032) crowned Conrad II (ca. 990–1039) as Holy Roman Emperor.

1517 Heinrich Isaac, composer, died (b. ca. 1450).

1521 Martin Luther was cited to appear at the Diet of Worms.

1675 Ernest I, pious duke of Saxe-Weimar, died (b. 25 December 1601).

1794 Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, draughtsman, engraver and painter, was born (d. 24 May 1872).

1827 Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, died (16 December 1770).

1829 Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, Church of Ireland author and professor, was born at Dublin (d. 1913).

1831 Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the first African American bishop in America, died (b. 14 February 1760).

1840 George Smith, English Assyriologist, was born in London (d. 19 August 1876).

1868 Ernst Eckhardt, Missouri Synod statistician and author, was born in Frankenberg, Saxony, Germany (d. 24 January 1938).

1881 Paul Christian Paulsen, UELC pastor and Danish hymn translator, was born in Alstrup, Jutland, Denmark (d. 26 July 1948).

1884 Ernest Carl Herman Lewerenz was born in Effingham, Illinois. He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1907 and served as a pastor at Jamestown-Pleasant Grove, Missouri (1907–1913), and Utica, Michigan (1913–1923), and as a professor at Concordia College (Fort Wayne, Indiana) beginning in 1923.

1886 John Baillie, Scottish theologian, was born (d. 1960).

1909 Anders Sixtus Nielsen, president of Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died (b. 1832).

1946 Oscar Carl Kreinheder, president of Valparaiso University, died (b. 10 November 1877).

1950 The first Missouri Synod services were held in Hong Kong.

1992 William B. Heyne (b. 1897) died. He served for many years as the choral director for Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis), leading both the seminary chorus and the Lutheran Hour chorus. He also founded the Saint Louis Bach Society and the Bach Festival in 1941.