May 7
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (1811–1887), the father
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, served as its first
president from 1847 to 1850 and then again from 1864 to 1878.
In 1839 he emigrated from Saxony, Germany, with other
Lutherans who settled in Missouri. He served as pastor of
several congregations in St. Louis, founded Concordia Seminary
and in 1847 was instrumental in the formation of the LCMS
(then called the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of
Missouri, Ohio, and Other States). Walther worked tirelessly
to promote confessional Lutheran teaching and doctrinal
agreement among all Lutherans in the United States. He was a
prolific writer and speaker. Among his most influential works
are Church and Ministry and The Proper
Distinction between Law and Gospel. [From "Commemorations
Biographies," Lutheran Service
Book, LCMS Commission on Worship]
558 In Constantinople the dome of the
Hagia Sophia collapsed.
Justinian I immediately ordered the dome rebuilt.
1274 The
Second
Council of Lyon convened under Gregory X (ca. 1210–1276).
1523 Franz
von Sickingen, who championed the Reformation by force of
arms, died (b. 2 March 1481).
1530
Louis
I
de Bourbon, prince of Condé, the first great leader of the
Huguenots (French Protestants), was born (d. 13 March 1569).
1570 The Conference of Zerbst began in an
effort to develop the Formula
of Concord.
1577 Puritan
meetings were forbidden by Elizabeth I of England.
1605 Russian prelate Nikon,
patriarch of Moscow and the head of the Russian Church,
was born in Valdemanovo (d. 17 August 1681).
1684 Tobias
Clausnitzer, hymnist, died in Weiden, Germany (b. 2
February 1619, Sweden).
1775 Kornelius
Heinrich Dretzel, composer, died (b. 18 September 1697, Nürnberg).
1794 The worship of a "supreme being," a
deist god, was declared in France
by revolutionaries.
1797 Charles
Philip Krauth, American Lutheran theologian and educator,
was born in New Goshenhoppen, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
(d. 30 May 1867).
1833 Johannes
Brahms, celebrated German composer and pianist, was born
in Hamburg (d. 3 April 1897).
1839 Elisha
A. Hoffman, American clergyman in the Evangelical Church,
was born in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania (d. 25 November
1929, Chicago, Illinois).
1840
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky, Russian composer, was born in Votkinsk,
Russia (d. 6 November 1893).
1851 Karl
Gustav Adolf von Harnack, German Lutheran Church historian
and theologian, was born in Dorpat, Livonia (modern Estonia)
(d. 10 June 1930).
1889 Anna
Bernardine Dorothy Hoppe, hymnist and hymn translator, was
born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 2 August 1941, Milwaukee).
1899 Adolf F. Meyer was born in Winfield,
Kansas, and graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis).
From 1923 to 1967 he was a member of the Board of Directors of
the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau of New York City. Also,
from 1926 to 1948 he served as the chairman of the LCMS's
"press committee." He died 6 July 1988 in Elizabeth, New
Jersey.
1900 Richard
S. Willis, American music scholar and composer, died in
Detroit, Michigan (b. 10 February 1819, Boston,
Massachusetts).
1901 Otto
P. Kretzmann, professor at Concordia Theological Seminary
(Springfield, Illinois) and president of Valparaiso
University, was born in Stamford, Connecticut (d. 14 September
1975).
1979 Walter F. Troeger, president of the
Southern California District of the Missouri Synod, died in
Santa Monica, California (b. 4 November 1890, Lutherville,
Arkansas). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis)
in 1913 and served parishes in Santa Monica and Redondo Beach,
California. He was district president from 1942 to 1948.
1999
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
traveled to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a
predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the
Great Schism in 1054.
2007 An Israeli team of archaeologists of the
Hebrew University led by Ehud Netzer, announced they had
discovered the tomb of
Herod
the Great. The site is located at the exact location
given by Flavius Josephus, atop of tunnels and water pools
at a flattened desert site halfway up the hill to
Herodium, 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem.