Birth of Rev. Arthur Stephen Paynter. He founded the India Christian Mission in the Kumoan District of North India. This evangelical mission agency supported agriculture, education, and orphanages in both India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff was born at Pyritz, Prussia (now Poland). Educated at royal expense at Johannes Janicke's missionary training schoolin Berlin, Gutzlaff sailed for the east Indies in 1827 at the age of 23. A year later he severed his relations with the Netherlands's Missionary Society and became a freelance missionary. His first achievement was the translation of the Bible into Siamese, which he accomplished in just three years. Never able to settle down for long, he lived in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) Singapore, Bangkok, Macao, Canton and Hong Kong (where he died in 1851). He served as interpreter and secretary of the British Ambassador; two years later he was appointed an interpreter for Chinese to English, but in 1841, with an American missionary Roberts, established a society to train natives as evangelists. Like Hudson Taylor, Gutzlaff adopted Chinese dress and customs. In the 1830s he made several trips along the Chinese coast distributing Christian literature. Unable to enter China himself, he organized a band of Chinese preachers and through them planned to evangelize the country. This effort attracted much attention and support in Europe, but without proper supervision, it ended in failure. Many of his "preachers" turned out to be opium smokers who took advantage of Gutzlaff's credulity and generosity. Among his converts, however, were some earnest and sincere men. Moreover, he was the means of attracting to China several very able German missionaries who later did successful work.