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1831 - Polly Knight, wife of Joseph Knight, Sr., dies in Jackson County, Missouri. This was the first death of a Latter-day Saint in Missouri. She had been very ill during the travel to Missouri and had expressed a desire to "set her feet upon the land of Zion" before she died.
1833 - The Prophet Joseph Smith receives the revelation known as Doctrine and Covenants 98, instructing the Saints on how they should react to persecution. (History of the Church, 1:403-406)
1836 - The Prophet Joseph Smith receives the revelation known as Doctrine and Covenants 111 while in Salem, Massachusetts, where he was seeking funds to help get the Church out of debt and doing missionary work. (History of the Church, 2:465-466)
1838 - The citizens of Far West met in the afternoon at the schoolhouse for the purpose of organizing a weekly newspaper with Sidney Rigdon as editor. It was also voted that a petition be circulated to locate the county seat at Far West. The Prophet Joseph spoke and encouraged their efforts and also encouraged the farmers to come into the city to live while continuing to work their farms outside the city "according to the order of God." Meanwhile, to the north of Far West, in Daviess County, fifty to one hundred Missourians refuse to let approximately thirty Latter-day Saints vote in the state and county elections at Gallatin, Missouri. There was a fist fight for several minutes and several were injured. When the mob left to get weapons, a few brethren were able to vote. They were determined to exercise their right to vote and Brother John Butler spoke and said, "We are American citizens; our fathers fought for their liberty, and we will maintain the same principles." The County offices then asked the brethren to withdraw to avoid further problems. The brethren gathered just outside of town where they witnessed armed men gathering into the town. The unarmed brethren decided to quickly head for home to gather their families and hid them in the fields in case the mob decided to raid the country side. This attack on the Saints is known as the "Election Day Battle" and becomes one of the events leading up to the Saints' expulsion from the state later in the year. (History of the Church, 3:56-58)
1842 - While visiting Montrose, Iowa, the Prophet Joseph Smith prophesies "that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains" (History of the Church, 5:85).
1843 - The Prophet Joseph Smith spoke to the Saints concerning politics, the upcoming election, and faith. (History of the Church, 5:525-526).
1844 - Brigham Young, and the Apostles traveling with him, arrived late in the evening at Nauvoo, Illinois, returning from their missions after learning of the death of the Prophet Joseph. Elder Wilford Woodruff records, "When we landed in the city a deep gloom seemed to rest over the city of Nauvoo, which we never experienced before." A majority of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with their Quorum President, Brigham Young, were now in the city. (History of the Church, 7:228)
1851 - The first branch of the Church in Hawaii is organized on the island of Maui.
1955 - Elder Gary E. Stevenson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is born in Ogden, Utah.
1981 - The first satellite sending and receiving station in the Mountain West was put into service after a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by President Spencer W. Kimball. A 10-meter dish located in City Creek Canyon was owned by Bonneville Satellite Corporation, a subsidiary of Bonneville International, and provided the Church and other clients access to the "space-age communications" system of the future. (Church News, August 8, 1981)
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