April 8

1839 – The Prophet Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Alexander McRae, Caleb Baldwin, and Lyman Wight arrive in Gallatin, Missouri, and were turned over to Sheriff William Morgan and his guard to stand trial. (History of the Church, 3:309)

1843 – The Prophet Joseph Smith speaks at the Saturday Morning session of General Conference in Nauvoo. He asked the crowd to exercise faith and pray that the Lord would calm the wind and strengthen his lungs so that he could speak to them. Among other things, he taught, “In knowledge there is power. God has more power than all other beings, because he has greater knowledge; and hence he knows how to subject all other beings to Him. He has power over all’ (History of the Church, 5:340).

1844 – On the last day of his last general conference, the Prophet Joseph Smith explains that “The whole of America is Zion itself from north to south, and is described by the Prophets, who declare that it is the Zion where the mountain of the Lord should be, and that it should be in the center of the land’ (History of the Church, 6:318-319).

1848 – During general conference held in the log tabernacle at Miller’s Hollow on the east side of the Missouri River, the settlement is renamed Kanesville in honor of Colonel Thomas L. Kane. Colonel Kane was a non-member friend of the Saints. The name is later changed to Council Bluffs, as it is known today in Iowa.

1876 – The first Latter-day Saint meeting is held in Mexico. About five hundred people attend the meeting held in Chihuahua.

1898 – The first Latter-day Saint meeting held in Caldwell County, Missouri, since the Saints had been expelled in 1838, was held under the direction of Elders Brigham F. Duffin and Thomas H. Chambers of Utah.

1929 – Senator and Apostle Reed Smoot was the first Latter-day Saint to be on the cover of Time magazine.

1990 – The first branch of the Church in the South African country of Transkei is organized in Umtata.

2011 – Brigham Young University basketball player Jimmer Fredette received the John R. Wooden Award as player of the year during an award ceremony in Los Angeles, California. Fredette had previously received the Naismith Award, the Associated Press’s play of the year Award, the National Association of Basketball Coaches player of the year award, the Oscar Robertson Award, and Adolph Rupp Award.