Famous Birthdays Jan 25 Edmund Campion, English Catholic Jesuit priest & martyr, born in London, England (d. 1581) Jan 28 Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610) Famous Deaths Jan 27 Angela Merici, Italian religious educator, founder of the Ursuline Order of nuns, and Roman Catholic saint, dies at 65 1539 History by Year 1541 What Happened in 1540 Thomas Cromwell Backs The Wrong Horse August 22, 1540