July 19

1835 – The Prophet Joseph spent much of the month of July in the translation of the Book of Abraham.

1847 – From the top of Big Mountain, Orson Pratt and John Brown become the first Latter-day Saint Pioneers to see the valley of the Great Salt Lake in the distance.  They had ridden ahead of their camp and climbed up the high mountain to see what lay ahead.  They saw the first stretch of flat prairie they had seen since entering the mountain country.  Fifteen wagons stayed with a recovering Brigham Young, while forty wagons, under the direction of Willard Richards and George A. Smith, went ahead with instructions to plant crops as soon as they arrived at a suitable place in the valley ahead.

1876 – Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Tenth President of the Church, is born in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1909 – President Joseph F. Smith arrives in Europe to visit with the Saints.  The annual Netherlands Mission conference in Rotterdam becomes the largest gathering of Saints to a Church meeting outside the Stakes of Zion in the history of the Church.

1941 – A monument extolling the Relief Society’s leadership cultivating silkworms was unveiled on the property of the Yalecrest wards in Salt Lake City by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP). Although not a prolific economic success, the initiative contributed to Utah’s reputation for hard work, industry and innovation.

1997 – Some three million hours of community service are contributed Church wide as part of the Pioneer Sesquicentennial celebration’s Worldwide Pioneer Heritage Service Day.

2007 – Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from two cities in the metro Denver area (Arapahoe and Aurora) were honored on a national level with the receipt of the 2007 Take Pride in America Award. The City of Aurora nominated the Church for this recognition based on the service rendered by more than a thousand volunteers at the Aurora Reservoir during last summer’s Colorado Cares Day.

2008 – Elder M. Russell Ballard dedicates “Eyes Westward‘ sculpture at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. It is a replicate of an identical statue erected in 2005 on the banks of the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois.

2009 – The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Music and the Spoken Word’ celebrates 80 years of live continuous network broadcasting on their regular Sunday program.  The choir opened its first broadcast on July 15, 1929 and is now carried on more than 2,000 radio, TV, cable and satellite stations, as well as on the internet.

2019 – Plans were announced to expand the For Strength of Youth (FSY) as a youth conference program for Latter-day Saint youth around the world.