April 2
742 or 747 Charlemagne,
founder of Holy Roman Empire, was born (d. 28 January
814).
1118
Baldwin I of Jerusalem, one of the leaders of the First
Crusade and King of Jerusalem, died (b. ca. 1058).
1272
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor and
leader of the Sixth Crusade, died (b. 5 January 1209).
1521 Martin Luther set out to appear at
the Diet of
Worms to be questioned about his writings.
1524 At the age of forty Swiss reformer
Huldrych
Zwingli (b. 1 January 1484) publicly married the widow
Anna Reinhard. Their marriage lasted until his death in the
Battle of Kappel on 11 October 1531.
1634
Karl
F. Lochner, hymnist, was born in Nuernberg (d. 25 February 1697).
1640 Paul
Flem(m)ing, hymnist, died (b. 1606 [1609?], Hartenstein,
Germany).
1657 Jean-Jacques Olier, French catholic priest
and founder of the
Society of Saint-Sulpice, died (b. 20 September 1608).
1758 Johann
B. König, composer, was buried (b. 28 January 1691, Waltershausen
near Gotha, Germany).
1791 Friedrich
Wilhelm Barthel (d. 24 July 1859) was born in Rosswein,
Saxony.
1845 Theodor
Halvarson Dahl, president of the United Norwegian Lutheran
Church in America, was born in Baastad, Norway (d. 18 January
1923).
1860 George Milligan, Scottish biblical
scholar, was born in Fife, Scotland (d. 1934). He taught at
Glasgow University from 1910 to 1932. In 1926 he was elected
the first chairman of the Scottish Sunday School Union. Most
of his published writings were on New Testament language. His
"magnum opus" was The Vocabulary of the Greek
Testament (1914-1930), coedited by James Hope
Moulton.
1877 Martin
F. Walker, a professor at Concordia Collegiate Institute
(Bronxville, New York) and president of the English District,
was born in York, Pennsylvania (d. 12 July 1967).
1877 Mordecai
Ham, American evangelist of the early 20th century, was
born at Scottsville, Kentucky (d. 1 November 1961, Louisville,
Kentucky).
1891 The
California Synod was organized in
San Francisco. The General Synod had begun its work in
California in 1886 through Rev. O. C. Miller. The German
pastors at first contemplated a separate synod but finally
united with the California Synod. With the General Synod it
joined the United Lutheran Church in America in 1918.
1894 William
D. Longstaff (b. 26 November 1822), English
philanthropist and hymnist, died.
1910 Friedrich
von Bodelschwingh Sr., founder of the Bethel Institute at
Bielefeld, Germany, died (b. 6 March 1831). [German
Wikipedia article]
1914 The
Assemblies of God was organized
at an eleven-day constitutional convention that began on this
date in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
1928
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, American cardinal and
archbishop of Chicago, was born (d. 14 November 1996).
1940 A Commission on War Service was
organized by Canadian Lutherans.
1952 Samuel
Marinus Zwemer, Reformed missionary to Arabia, died (b. 12
April 1867, Vriesland, near Holland, Michigan).
1976 Four district presidents were removed
from office by Missouri Synod president
J. A. O. Preus
II (1920–1994). The
four district leaders were Herman Frincke (Eastern District),
Harold Hecht (English), Rudolph P. F. Ressmeyer (Atlantic) and
Robert J. Riedel (New England). The 1975 synodical convention
at Anaheim had authorized Preus to vacate the office of any
district president who did not comply with synodical
directives on the ordination and placement of improperly
endorsed ministerial candidates (graduates of Concordia
Seminary in Exile). Preus was to vacate the offices sixty days
before the respective district's convention.
2005 Pope
John Paul II died (b. 18 May 1920).