May 19th

May 19, 1838 - Joseph Smith receives a revelation that Spring Hill, Missouri is really "Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the prophet" and that a pile of stones found there was the remains of an altar built by Adam to offer sacrifices.

May 19, 1841 - The WARSAW SIGNAL editorializes: "We believe they [Mormons] have the same rights as other religious bodies posses. . . But whenever they, as a people, step beyond the proper sphere of a religious denomination, and become a political body, as many of our citizens are beginning to apprehend will be the case, then this press stands pledged to take a stand against th. . . It is bound to oppose the concentration of political power in a religious body, or in the hands of a few individuals."

May 19, 1842 - Joseph Smith becomes Nauvoo's mayor. His Nauvoo "Lifeguards" are headed by former Danite Albert P. Rockwood and include Danites Hosea Stout and Orrin Porter Rockwell. At the City Council meeting during the balloting for Mayor, Joseph Smith jots down and then "threw across the room" a revelation to Hiram Kimball which declares that "Verily thus saith the Lord…Hiram Kimball has been insinuating evil, and forming evil opinions against you, with others; and if he continue in them, he and they will be accursed, for I am the Lord thy God, and will stand by thee and bless thee. Amen." Joseph had recently proposed plural marriage to Hiram Kimball's wife Sarah M. Kimball and had been rebuffed by her.

May 19, 1845 - The trial of five men accused of the murder of Joseph Smith begins in Carthage, Illinois. Judge Richard M. Young begins by empanelling a 23-man Grand Jury which contains nine Mormons including the foreman Daniel Spencer. He then empanels two "petit juries" of 24 men each. The first contains ten Mormons and the second eleven. Upon defense motion the juries are discharged and new juries chosen from men present at the trial. Since Mormon leaders instructed them to keep away from the trial there are only four Mormons among the 96 potential jurors and no Mormons on the final twelve-man jury.

May 19, 1847 - Heber C. Kimball, in search of a road for the pioneer company "saw 2 very large wolves at about 5 rods distance gazing at him. One of them he said was nearly as large as a 2 year old steer. When he saw these he looked around on the other side and saw several others about the same distance from him very large ones and all gazing fiercely at him. This startled him considerably and more especially when he reflected that he had no arms. He made a noise to try to scare them away but they still stood and he concluded to move away as soon as he could. They did not follow him and he saw a dead carcass near which satisfied him that he had interrupted their repast. On mentioning this circumstance to President Young they named the creek Wolf Creek"

May 19, 1860 - Brigham Young remarks "while talking over the untimely deaths of Brewer & Johnson, [two men found shot to death two days previously in Salt Lake City] that he was much gratified that the time had come when mormons could not be insulted mobbed and destroyed as they once were." Wilford Woodruff referred to Brewer and Johnson as "both Desperate wicked men."

May 19, 1889 - Apostle Francis M. Lyman teaches: "Whenever a false doctrine is presented to the Latter-day Saints, I will tell you one way by which you may know its falsity: it produces in the heart of every Saint, a question. There is uncertainty; there is something that disturbs the spirit of every Latter-day Saint. If they read an erroneous doctrine in the public prints; if they hear it in a discourse; if it is spoken to them in private, it does not seem to settle in their hearts as though it were a part of the plan of salvation; but it produces questioning, uncertainty, doubt and misgiving."

May 19, 1890 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Edmunds-Tucker Act and confiscation of LDS properties ruling that the LDS church had engaged in illegal activities; committee of U.S. Senate recommends disfranchisement bill. President Wilford Woodruff writes "The Supreme Court of the United States Decided to day Against the Church . . . .This is turning the Last [key] that will seal the Condemnation of this Nation."

May 19, 1894 - Apostle Francis M. Lyman "confidentially" tells a Relief Society Conference "they should not think that men committed sin if they did happen to associate with their plural wives."

May 19, 1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt visits Salt Lake City. Apostle John Henry Smith wrotes: "Hundreds of men, women and children turned out to meet him. He spoke to the school children at the city Hall and to the people in the Tabernacle. . . . He received me with open arms as an old time friend."

May 19, 1928 - DESERET NEWS quotes J. Reuben Clark's Mothers Day sermon, delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Clark claimed that the famous women of history had been wrong to acquire prominence because in doing so, they had placed themselves "in the field of competition with men."

May 19, 1965 - By authorization of First Presidency, ex-apostle John W. Taylor is baptized into LDS church. On May 21 Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith performs proxy ordinance of restoring all priesthood blessings to the deceased apostle.

May 19, 1969 - First Presidency publishes: "We make no statement on how this country can or should try to disengage itself from the present regrettable war in Vietnam. . . .We believe our young men should hold themselves in readiness to respond to the call of their government to serve in the armed forces when called upon." This is the first war in the twentieth century when the Church's DESERET NEWS does not editorialize in favor of option for conscientious objection.

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