September 15

1840 – The funeral of Joseph Smith, Sr. took place in Nauvoo with Robert B. Thompson delivering the funeral address. Also, the Times and Seasons reported that “The governor of Missouri [Lilburn W. Boggs], after a silence of about two years, has at last made a demand of Governor Carlin of Illinois, for Joseph Smith, Jun., Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, Caleb Baldwin, and Alanson Brown, as fugitives from justice.’ (History of the Church, 4:191-199)

1843 – Because of his “house being constantly crowded with strangers and other persons wishing to see me, or who had business in the city,’ the Prophet Joseph opens the Mansion House in Nauvoo, Illinois, as a hotel. (History of the Church, 6:33).

1850 – The first branch of the Church in Denmark is organized at Copenhagen.

1851 – The first converts in Germany are baptized.

1857 – Governor Brigham Young declares martial law in the Territory of Utah. He had recently learned that U. S. President James Buchanan had sent an army to Utah to stop the alleged “rebellion’ of the Mormons. Governor Young orders the territory militia—the Nauvoo Legion—to prevent the U.S. Army from “invading’ Utah and requiring passes for anyone entering or leaving the Territory of Utah.

1963 – The Liberty Jail Visitors’ Center in Liberty, Missouri, is dedicated by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was in this jail that the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum, and others, were incarcerated during the winter of 1838-1839 while the Saints were being forced out of Missouri to Illinois.

1978 – The first converts in the Pacific island republic of Palau are baptized.

1983 – The Santiago Chile Temple is dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency.

      Sharleen Wells

1984 – Sharlene Wells, Church member and Miss Utah, is chosen as the new Miss America.

1990 – President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency dedicates a monument at the site of the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857 in Southwestern Utah. The memorial service is attended by descendants of those involved on both sides of the tragedy.

2015 – Clark Gilbert was installed as the sixteenth President of Brigham Young University-Idaho.

2019 – The Lisbon Portugal Temple is dedicated by Elder Neil L. Andersen, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.