June 2nd

June 2, 1824 - Josiah Priest, copyrights THE WONDERS OF NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. It is printed soon afterwards in Rochester, New York, only some twenty miles distant from Palmyra, near Joseph Smith's residence. In the book Mr. Priest argues at length that the Indians may be descendants of the Israelites.

June 2, 1830 - CINCINNATI ADVERTISER reports: "A fellow by the name of Joseph Smith, who resides in the upper part of Susquehanna county, has been, for the last two years we are told, employed in dedicating as he says, by inspiration, a new bible. He pretended that he had been entrusted by God with a golden bible which had been always hidden from the world. Smith would put his face into a hat in which he had a white stone, and pretend to read from it, while his coadjutor transcribed."

June 2, 1847 - Mission president William Appleby writes to Brigham Young, asking if it were "the order of God, or tolerated, to ordain negroes to the priesthood and allow amalgamation. If it is, I desire to know it as I have yet to learn it."

June 2, 1857 - Brigham Young says from the pulpit, "I feel to sustain him," when informed that the bishop in Manti. Warren S. Snow, has castrated twenty-four-year-old Welshman, Thomas Lewis, for undisclosed sex crime. "Just let the matter drop, and say no more about it," Young writes Snow in July about the castration, "and it will soon die away among the people." Snow's counselor confides to his diary that this poor young man "has now gone crazy."

June 2, 1860 - Brigham Young's office journal records: "In the evening Pres[ident] Joseph Young came in and had some conversation with the President upon the Science of music. The President [said] a great deal of the music now played by the world have been composed to play at whore houses, and as the virtues of Nations declined the music sinks with it. he also remarked the music compositors [sic] of the present day introduce [sic] as much discord as possible into their compositions, without actually destroying the rules of music."

June 2, 1877 - DESERET NEWS story that reporter for NEW YORK HERALD claims there were two attempts to kill him during past week in Salt Lake City, a knife attack and a shooting. On June 2, NEWS dismisses his claim as "a vile plot gotten up . . . to revive the anti-'Mormon' excitement." On June 23 it editorializes that the New York reporter "is really in mental disorder," but two days later defends the city's investigation as serious effort.

June 2, 1971 - BYU Board of Trustees adopts a policy of not hiring mothers with small children and of replacing "where possible working mothers that are presently employed."

June 2, 1979 - CHURCH NEWS article "Computers Aid Church" refers to use of computers by Missionary Department. Due to massive increase of missionaries, computers have assigned Mormons to their full-time missions since church-wide computerization in 1970. First Presidency has neither oversight nor review of mission calls. Special committee (LDS bureaucrats and one or two general authorities) reviews computer print-outs of proposed missionary calls and occasionally changes some mission assignments. Signature machine signs church president's name to letter informing LDS missionaries of their assignments. Management Systems Corporation is dissolved in 1979, its functions absorbed by Information Systems Department.

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