May 12th

May 12, 1838 - Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon request annual remuneration of $1,100, each. The council gives 80 acre lots to each and grants their salary request. Council member George M. Hinkle "bitterly opposed it, as the Church had always been opposed to a salaried ministry."

May 12, 1844 - Joseph Smith publicly exclaims, "I calculate to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel by the word of the Lord, and I intend lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world." A few hours later "about three hundred" people attend a meeting of William Law's Reformed Church in Nauvoo and listen to sermons against "the Spiritual wife doctrine" and "Smith's plan of uniting Church and State."

May 12, 1852 - William A. Hickman tells Mosiah Lyman Hancock, a loyal Mormon, that Brigham Young instructs him to "kill Gentiles [non-Mormons] and take their property for the good of the Church." but Young denies this to Hancock on July 3.

May 12, 1860 - Brigham Young's office journal records: "B[isho]p Allen Taylor related an immoral affair to the President and requested counsel of him, he replied I would cut him off the Church. The President observed in many cases women are much to blame; but the man must always realize he is the Lord of the woman; and in the end is responsible for his actions and not the woman."

May 12, 1862 - Brigham Young "rode out. In the Evening he shewed the Brethren in the Office the new set of teeth Sec. Frank Fuller had made him. they were a good set and fitted exceedingly well and gave the President much satisfaction."

May 12, 1870 - Former Apostle Amasa M. Lyman is excommunicated for associating himself with the Godbeite movement. Three years previously he had been dropped from the Council of Twelve for teaching that a person could work out their own salvation independent of Christ's atonement.

May 12, 1875 - THE DESERET NEWS reports that Judge David B. Lowe has set aside a previous court order that Brigham Young pay $9,500 accumulated alimony to Ann Eliza Webb Young. The court reasoned that alimony could not be awarded unless a valid marriage existed. Since Young had alleged that the marriage was illegal and the allegation was not denied, it had to be considered true, and the order was set aside.

May 12, 1954 - Appointment of A. Sherman Christenson as first active Mormon to be federal judge (U.S. District Court for Utah).

May 12, 1958 - LDS James Gladstone ("Many Guns") of Blood Tribe begins his service as first Native American in Canada's national senate.

May 12, 1970 - After days of student protests at University of Utah against Ohio National Guard's killing of students at Kent State, bomb destroys office of Utah National Guard.

May 12, 1993 - Regional Representative Jon M. Huntsman, recently released as U.S. ambassador, meets in Vatican with Pope John Paul II who expresses gratitude for Mormon donations to Catholic Relief work.

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