1834 – While traveling through Pennsylvania on his way to Western New York to gather volunteers to join Zion’s Camp, the Prophet Joseph and his party stayed at the home of an unnamed stranger, “who entertained us very kindly’ (History of the Church, 2:41).
1835 – Joseph Smith organizes the First Quorum of the Seventy and ordains Joseph Young, Hazen Aldrich, Levi W. Hancock, Leonard Rich, Zebedee Coltrin, Sylvester Smith, and Lyman Sherman as the First Seven Presidents.
1839 – The Democratic Association of Quincy, Illinois, pass a resolution condemning Missouri Governor Lilburn Bogg’s extermination order and expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri.
1843 – The Prophet Joseph writes a letter to the editor of the Times and Seasons in response to a somewhat slanderous attack in the Chicago Express. He writes that “every honest man who has visited the city of Nauvoo . . . can bear record of better things, and place me in the front ranks of those who are known to do good for the sake of goodness . . . [and that] virtue exalts me and the Saints to light and immortality’ (History of the Church, 5:290-291). He then bears witness of his calling as a prophet of God.
1846 – Brigham Young, camped at Sugar Creek, across the Mississippi River and several miles west of Nauvoo, wrote, “The fact is worthy of remembrance that several thousand persons left their homes in midwinter and exposed themselves without shelter, except that afforded by a scanty supply of tents and wagon covers, to a cold which effectually made an ice bridge over the Mississippi river which at Nauvoo is more than a mile broad. We could have remained sheltered in our homes had it not been for the threats and hostile demonstrations of our enemies, who, notwithstanding their solemn agreements had thrown every obstacle in our way, not respecting either life, liberty or property . . . Our homes, gardens, orchards, farms, streets, bridges, mills, public halls, magnificent Temple, and other public improvements we leave as a monument of our patriotism, industry, economy, uprightness of purpose and integrity of heart; and as a living testimony of the falsehood and wickedness of those who charge us with disloyalty to the Constitution of our country, idleness and dishonesty’ (History of the Church, 7:603).
1850 – The government of the provisional state of Deseret passes an ordinance that incorporates the University of the State of Deseret. It would later become the University of Utah.
1960 – The first stake in New Jersey is organized in Morristown.
1993 – Eugene and Ruth Hilton arrive in Ethiopia as the first official missionaries of the Church to that country.
2002 – The First Presidency announced changes in the missionary program on the stake and ward levels. All ward missionary work was placed under the direction of the Bishop instead of the Stake President. Ward members serving in a mission capacity are now called ward missionaries.
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