July 3rd

July 3, 1834 - Joseph Smith disbands Zion's Camp without having rescued Zion.

July 3, 1835 - Michael H. Chandler exhibit four Egyptian mummies and at least two rolls of papyrus in Kirtland, Ohio. He then sells the mummies and papyrus scrolls to Joseph Smith who begins to translate them using his white seer stone. His translation is later published as the Book of Abraham.

July 3, 1837 - Ground is broken for the Far West Temple. The corner stones are not laid for a year. Nothing further is done until April 26, 1839, when the twelve apostles, in fulfillment of a revelation, hold a secret meeting on the temple site and symbolically re-commenced the building of the temple by rolling a large stone up to one of the corners. The temple is never built because the Mormons are driven from Missouri in 1839.

July 3, 1844 - William Clayton digs up the minutes of the Council of Fifty that he had buried at Joseph Smith's request a week earlier. He finds that they have been damaged by water while buried.

July 3, 1845 - At a meeting of the Apostles "It was decided to employ Brother [Isaac] Morley to make 100 barrels of wine for sacrament."

July 3, 1870 - Albert Carrington is ordained an apostle. He is the first general authority with B.A degree (Dartmouth College, 1834, Phi Beta Kappa). He is also first general authority who attended Ivy League school.

July 3, 1880 - Apostle Wilford Woodruff preaches: "When we came here thirty-three years ago we found this place a barren desert. There was no mark of the white man here• It was a desert indeed, hardly a green thing to meet the eye." However his diary entry for July 24, 1847 describes the Salt Lake Valley: "We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley which lay for about 25 miles in length & 16 miles in width Clothed with the Heaviest garb of green vegetation . . . [a] glorious valley abounding with the best fresh water springs rivlets creeks & Brooks & Rivers of various sizes all of which gave animation to the sporting trout & other fish while the waters were wending there way into the great Salt lake."
Woodruff continues his sermon: "Joseph and Hyrum, it is true, were called to lay down their lives. Why? I believe myself it was necessary to seal a dispensation of this almighty magnitude with the blood of the testator for one thing, and for another thing the people were worthy that put, him to death, and will have the bill to pay as the Jews had to pay for the blood of the Messiah."

July 3, 1881 - Apostle John Henry Smith reports on a stake conference assignment in Filmore, Utah: "J. V. Robison [spoke] . . . on the celestial law of marriage, showing that the man who had one wife sealed to him by the Holy Spirit of promise had only gone part of the way. I presented the general authorities and Br. E. Partridge the local. After which Bro. [Apostle] F[rancis] M. Lyman spoke on the Celestial law of marriage laying down the rule that no man could get all of the blessings without keeping the whole law.

July 3, 1885 - Apostle Heber J. Grant records that First Presidency authorizes half-masting of American flags on Salt Lake city hall, court house, and at church-owned ZCMI on July 4. This causes near-riot by non-Mormons.

July 3, 1887 - Apostle Heber J. Grant writes in his diary: "I have felt for a long while that Pres[iden]t Cannon was expecting to succeed Pres[iden]t Taylor, Pres[iden]t Cannon thinks I am the most ambitious young man in Utah, and I think there is not limit to his ambition. I have but little confidence in Pres[iden]t Cannon's management of affairs financially. I get up out of bed a[nd] prayed with all my heart and soul to God that he would help me to overcome my feeling of ambition that was calculated to lead me from Him or the path of duty . . ." After John Taylor dies three weeks later, nineteen months pass before Wilford Woodruff is chosen as President of the Church.

July 3, 1889 - Apostle John W. Taylor prophesies about "the battle when the Negroes rise up against their masters which soon would be the case. The red men would stalk through the land as the battle axe of the Lord and after they had done this work they would be changed to a skin of whiteness in a day."

July 3, 1918 - Joseph Fielding Smith, David O. McKay, and Heber J. Grant of the Twelve called on President Joseph F. Smith's Counselors Anthony H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose. The three apostles said that the Twelve differed with the presiding patriarch Hyrum G. Smith who believed, on the basis of his patriarchal office, he ought to become the presiding authority of the church upon the death of Joseph F. Smith. To help settle the matter Heber J. Grant produced a letter written by Wilford Woodruff stating that without direct revelation from the Lord he did not believe that the day would come when the president of the Council of the Twelve would not become president of the church. Both presidents Lund and Penrose expressed pleasure at the letter but decided not to discuss the matter with Joseph F. Smith in view of his poor health.

July 3, 1936 - First Presidency statement against Communism and Communist Party (which is legal in United States at this time and has candidates in Utah elections).

July 3, 1981 - After nearly eleven years of losing advertising revenues, DESERET NEWS begins publishing ads for R-rated movies.

July 3, 1984 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Council of the Twelve writes a memorandum to the Church Board of Education Executive Committee and the Special Affairs Committee that a scholarly defense of the historicity of the Book of Mormon should be prepared. Maxwell names BYU's John Sorenson as a possible author.

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