October 10th

Oct 10, 1842 - Missionary (and later president) Lorenzo Snow delivers two ornamentally bound copies of the BOOK OF MORMON to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert through Sir Henry Wheatly. Queen Victoria probably never read, and may never have handled this presentation copy, but it has since resided in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

Oct 10, 1876 - John D. Lee sentenced to death for Mountain Meadows Massacre. Judge Jacob Boreman gives Lee the choice between hanging, firing squad or being beheaded. By choosing firing squad over beheading Lee seems to indicate he feels no need of blood atonement. At the sentencing Judge Boreman says LDS authorities had "inaugurated and decided upon the wholesale slaughter of the emigrants" and had been "a persistent and determined opposition to an investigation of the massacre." OGDEN JUNCTION newspaper calls Boreman's remarks "disgraceful" and an attack on prosecutor Sumner Howard. Howard had made a secret deal with the LDS leaders to prosecute only Lee in exchange for LDS cooperation. John D. Lee is the only person ever tried in connection with Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Oct 10, 1880 - Conference sustains John Taylor as church president with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors. None of members of this First Presidency are set apart. Taylor is only church president born outside United States or its territories.

Oct 10, 1898 - Lorenzo Snow is "set apart" (NOT ordained) as church president, and his counselors are also set apart. This is first time that members of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are set apart for service in First Presidency. Rudger Clawson is ordained apostle, first convicted felon to becom member of Quorum of Twelve.

Oct 10, 1901 - Lorenzo Snow's dath. First time church president dies before being able to set apart or function with new counselors publicly sustained at general conference, Joseph F. Smith as first and Rudger Clawson as second counselor.

Oct 10, 1906 - Mission president tells Apostle Francis M Lyman, "President Taylor died in exile for this principle and he gave men authority to perform the ceremony of marriate which authority I have been told was never revoked-etc."

Oct 10, 1917 - 145th Field Artillery regiment departs Utah for duty in "Great War" (World War I). Nearly all of its 1,300 to 1,500 officers and enlisted men are LDS, so unit is nicknamed "the Mormon regiment." Seventy's president B.H.Roberts serves regiment as chaplain. He is first active general authority since 1846 to participate in U.S. war and is among first three Mormons to serve as U.S. military chaplains. There are 665 deaths (including missing-in-action) among 21,000 Utahns (primarily Mormons) who serve in World War I.

Oct 10, 1934 - First Presidency and newly apointed apostle Alonzo A. Hinckley agree that Heber J. Grant should ask Los Angeles stake president Leo J. Muir to "stop working for [Upton] Sinclair," Socialist Party candidate for California governor. Grant publicly opposes Sinclair's election.

Oct 10, 1946 - Benjamin E. Roberts, son of B. H. Roberts, addresses the Timpanogos Club at the Hotel Utah, discussing his father's studies on the Book of Mormon. He presents a manuscript by B. H. Roberts titled "A Parallel" which lists 18 parallels between the Book of Mormon and Ethan Smith's "VIEW OF THE HEBREWS" which was published in New York in 1823 and again in an enlarged edition in 1825. One of B. H. Roberts striking "parallels" is a passage from Ethan Smith's book that gives a capsule outline of the Book of Mormon: "It is highly probable that the more civilized part of the tribes of Israel, after they settled in America, became wholly separated from the hunting and savage tribes of their brethren: that the latter lost the knowledge of their having descended from the same family with themselves; that the more civilized part continued for many centuries; that tremendous wars were frequent between them and their savage brethren, till the former became extinct." B. H. Roberts adds: "Let it be remembered that the work from which this is quoted existed from five to seven years before the publication of the Book of Mormon. And the two editions of the work flooded the New England states and New York."

Oct 10, 1951 - Meeting of Twelve discuss previous "controversy" between President Joseph F. Smith and his second counselor Charles W. Penrose over whether it is necessary to confer priesthood before ordaining to office. This does not become churchwide policy again for almost six years.

Oct 10, 1972 - First Presidency letter: "We are concerned that adequate attention be given to members of the Church who do not speak the language of the majority where they live." It authorizes wards and branches to have priesthood and auxiliary classes taught in foreign languages, or organization of branches/wards for sufficient numbers of Mormons who speak foreign languages. This fulfills Apostle Spencer W. Kimball's ernest proposal to temple meeting on July 1, 1970.

Oct 10, 2000 - Unitus, an Orem-based foundation dedicated to stamping out poverty, names LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley "Humanitarian of the Millenium." Unitas chairman presents the award to President Hinckley in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. In winning this award President Hinckley beats out Albert Schweitzer, Ghandi, and Mother Theresa.

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