Civil rights leader and Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. - April 4

397 – Ambrose of Milan, the most talented bishop of the early church, dies. Biblical exegete, political theorist, master of Latin eloquence, musician, and teacher, he brought Roman Emperor Theodosius I to his knees in repentance after the emperor ordered a massacre of his citizens (This marked the first time the state submitted to the church). But he is perhaps best known for teaching his most famous pupil, Augustine of Hippo.

1507 - Martin Luther is ordained a priest in Erfurt, Germany.

1523 - Leonard Kopp helps 12 nuns escape from their cloister at Nimschen in Saxony, hidden in his fish barrels. One of them, Katherina von Bora, will wed Martin Luther.

1634 - Death in Amsterdam of Episcopius, leading Arminian theologian.

1660 - King Charles II of England, still in exile, issues the Breda Declaration, making promises that he will violate soon after his return to England, among them “We do declare a liberty to tender consciences; and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom.” He will be a great persecutor of Presbyterians and of Independents such as John Bunyan.

‎1742 - Charles Wesley preaches his famous sermon, “Awake, thou that sleepest,” to the University of Oxford. Printed, the sermon will become Methodism’s most popular tract.

1840 - Death of John Campbell, a Scottish businessman, missionary, preacher, and philanthropist. He had founded a tract society, numerous Sunday schools, societies for disgraced women, and a Bible society. At the request of the London Missionary Society, he had even inspected mission work in South Africa. Among his charitable activities, he brought Africans to Britain for training and advocated the abolition of the slave trade.

1944 - The BBC broadcasts “The New Man,” the seventh and last of C.S. Lewis’s pre-recorded 15-minute talks known as “Beyond Personality,” all of which will later be included in his book "Mere Christianity."

1968 - Civil rights leader and Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

1995 - Death of Sun Yanli, a hymn-writer and an eminent leader in the Three-Self Patriotic Church, the government-sanctioned church of China. Despite his associations, he was cruelly persecuted for several years during the Cultural Revolution.

– Sources: Christian History Institute, christianitytoday.com