December 24

1833 – On Christmas Eve, four elderly families still living in Jackson County, Missouri, who had not left their homes previously because of their older age, where attacked by a mob, driven from their homes, and had their homes destroyed. The youngest man was sixty-five. (History of the Church, 1:469)

1838 – The Prophet Joseph and his brethren are in Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri.

1841 – The Prophet Joseph met in council with President Brigham Young and Bishop Newel K. Whitney about “establishing an agency in England for the cheap and expeditious conveyance of the Saints to Nauvoo, and for our convenience in merchandise” (History of the Church, 4:484).

1842 – The Prophet Joseph teaches that the “prayer of a wicked man may do a righteous man good, when it does the one who prays no good.” He also said, “If the fervent, affectionate prayer of the righteous man availeth much, a wicked man may avail a little when praying for a righteous man” (History of the Church, 5:208).

1845 – Brother William Miller, who had been arrested the day before by mistake when the marshal thought he was Brigham Young, returned home to Nauvoo after spending the night in Carthage.

1847 – A log meetinghouse built in Miller’s Hollow, later Kanesville, Iowa, is dedicated by Elder Orson Pratt. It is forty by sixty feet and holds about one thousand people.

1905 – Children of the Church gather on Christmas Eve at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

1920 – The First Presidency announces the release of a new edition of the Book of Mormon with footnotes and new chapter introductions. Also, the text is set in two columns on each page instead of just one.

1961 – The CBS Radio program Faith in Action highlights the Church’s activities in Brazil.

1998 – China radio airs a Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast during prime time.

1999 – President Gordon B. Hinckley appears on CNN’s Larry King Live, which is broadcast from the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also appearing on the program are Reverend Robert Schuller, who was in Bethlehem, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tuto, who was at the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C.