April 30

304 The last and most punishing anti-Christian edict during Roman Emperor Diocletian's (244–311) reign was published.

418 Roman Emperor Honorius (384–423) issued a decree against Pelagianism, a teaching that a person can take the initial and fundamental steps toward salvation by one's own efforts, apart from divine grace. The decree described Pelagianism as a great threat to peace.

711 - Umayyad troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad landed at Gibraltar, beginning the Moorish invasion of Iberia.

1562 Two ships carrying 150 settlers from France arrived off the coast of northeast Florida. Jean Ribault (1520–1565), with the approval of Charles IX of France, led these Huguenot (French Protestant) emigrants to America to found a colony. The group eventually established a settlement at Parris Island, South Carolina, named Port Royal, but abandoned it two years later (1564) when essential supplies failed to arrive.

1623 François de Laval, first Roman Catholic bishop of New France, was born (d. 6 May 1708).

1642 Christian Weise, hymnist, was born at Zittau (d. 21 October 1708). [German Wikipedia article]

1651 Roman Catholic educational reformer Jean Baptiste de La Salle, founder of a lay order called the Brothers of the Christian Schools, was born in Reims, France (d. 7 April 1719).

1658 Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620–1700) established the first uncloistered Catholic missionary community in the new world at Ville Marie, Canada.

1712 Limborch (Philippus van Limborch), Dutch Remonstrant theologian and Arminian, died in Amsterdam, Netherlands (b. 1633). He, together with other eminent men from Holland and France, subscribed to the Arminian formula of faith written by Episcopius.

1816 George Bowen, Bombay missionary, was born Middleburn, Vermont (d. 5 February 1888).

1820 James Russell Woodford, hymnist, was born in Henley-on-Thames (d. 24 October 1885, Ely, England).

1835 Denis Wortman, hymnist, was born in Hopewell, New York (d. 28 August 1922, Orange, New Jersey).

1841 Orville J. Nave, the U.S. Armed Services chaplain who authored Nave's Topical Bible, was born (d. 1917).

1854 James Montgomery, British clergyman, poet, and hymnist, died in Ayrshire, Scotland (b. 4 November 1771, Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland).

1867 Ithamar Conkey, popular English bass vocalist and composer, died in New York (b. 5 May 1815, Shutesbury, Massachusetts).

1884 The first independent conference was held by Russian Baptists.

1885 Carl Johann Hermann Fick, poet, Missouri Synod pastor and charter member of the synod, died (b. 2 February 1822).

1928 Theodore H. Lamprecht, first Lutheran Laymen's League president, died (b. 7 August 1858, New York City).

1937 Carl Christian Hein, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio, died (b. 31 August 1868, Wiesbaden).

1952 Betty Rose Wulf, Missouri Synod missionary to India, died in a plane crash at Delhi at age 26. She was educated at Saint John's College (Winfield, Kansas), Valparaiso University and the Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) Mission School. Commissioned as a teacher and mission worker in India at Saint Peter Lutheran Church (Humboldt, Kansas) on 26 June 1949, she sailed for India on 29 July, arriving in early September. She served as a teacher at the girls school in Vadakangulam.

1960 Luther's Small Catechism was published in Korea.