Feb, 5, 1831 - The EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE AND GOSPEL ADVOCATE publishes a letter from "A. W. B" [Abraham W. Benton] titled "Mormonites" which states in part: I saw a notice of a sect of people called Mormonites; and thinking that a fuller history of their founder, Joseph Smith, jr., might be interesting . . . For several years preceding the appearance of his book, he was about the country in the character of a glass-looker: pretending, by means of a certain stone, or glass, which he put in a hat, to be able to discover lost goods, hidden treasures, mines of gold and silver, &c. Although he constantly failed in his pretensions, still he had his dupes who put implicit confidence in all his words. In this town, a wealthy farmer, named Josiah Stowell, together with others, spent large sums of money in digging for hidden money, which this Smith pretended he could see, and told them where to dig; but they never found their treasure. At length the public . . . had him arrested as a disorderly person, tried and condemned before a court of Justice. But considering his youth, (he being then a minor,) and thinking he might reform his conduct, he was designedly allowed to escape. This was four or five years ago." This is the earliest mention, in public print, of Joseph Smiths 1826 Bainbridge trial.

Feb 5, 1838 - A Far West meeting of the "whole Church in Zion" votes to remove David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and W. W. Phelps from their positions as "Presidents of the Church" in Missouri. David Whitmer was accused of persisting "in the use of tea, coffee, and tobacco." All three men allegedly encouraged the sale of Jackson County lands, a transgression which Joseph Smith had earlier declared "a denial of our faith, as that is the place where the Zion of God shall stand, according to our faith and belief in the revelations of God." Thirteen months later Joseph Smith advises the Saints to "sell all the land in Jackson, and all other lands in the State [of Missouri]"

Feb 5, 1840 - While on a mission in England, William Clayton writes in his diary, "Sister Perkins gave me a tea cup full of red wine;"

Feb 5, 1842 - Joseph Smith's disaffected private secretary accuses him of trying to create "a system of hereditary tyranny." By his death Joseph Smith had made general authorities of his father, his brothers Hyrum and William, his uncle John Smith, and his first cousin George A. Smith.

Feb 5, 1846 - The NEW YORK HERALD praises "Those hardy, bold pioneers--who (quitting their home, and leaving the pleasant associations which cling around the scenes of their childhood) hew down forests and build up cities, and make the wilderness bud and blossom--deserve our sympathies and most heart felt wishes of success" The ship BROOKLYN left New York with 230 Mormon pioneers who left the same day (bound for California) as the start of the exodus from Nauvoo.

Feb 5, 1847 - Patriarch "Father John Smith" sends an invitation to the Twelve to attend the "Silver Gray Picnic." The Silver Grays "consisted of all the old men in the Camp of Israel over 50 years of age. . . . The quorum of the Twelve met with them at the opening of the meeting. Remarks were made by President [Brigham} Young. A Hymn was sung after which they feasted together and then they went forth in the dance praising God in their hearts." Brigham Young writes of this in his journal, "dance all night, if you desire to do so, for there is no harm in it. . . .The center of the floor was then cleared for the dance when the 'Silver Grays' and spectacled dames enjoyed themselves in the dance, it was indeed an interesting and novel sight, to behold the old men and women, some nearly an hundred years old, dancing like ancient Israel."
John D. Lee records in his journal "About 9 I was washed in salaratus and water from head to foot, afterward in spirits, then anointed in like manner by Louisa [Wife No. 3] and Rachel [Wife No. 6] (as I told them) preparatory to my burial. They both were very kind and attentive to me."

Feb 5, 1852 - Brigham Young announces policy of denying priesthood to all those black African ancestry: "The Lord said I will not kill Cane But I will put a mark upon him and it is seen in the face of every Negro on the Earth And it is the decree of God that that mark shall remain upon the seed of Cane & the Curse untill all the seed of Abel should be redeemed and Cane will not receive the priesthood untill or salvation untill all the seed of Abel are Redeemed. Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him Cannot hold the priesthood & if no other Prophet ever spake it Before I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ. I know it is true & they know it. The Negro cannot hold one particle of Government But the day will Come when all the seed of Cane will be Redeemed & have all the Blessings we have now & a great deal more. But the seed of Abel will be ahead of the seed of Cane to all Eternity. Let me consent to day to mingle my seed with the seed of Cane. It would Bring the same curse upon me And it would upon any man. And if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the ownly way he Could get rid of it or have salvation would be to Come forward & have his head Cut off & spill his Blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his Children." Contrary to Joseph Smith's example in authorizing the ordination of Elijah Abel, denial of priesthood to Blacks is LDS policy for the next 126 years.
Young announces this policy in connection with Utah legislature's legalization of African-American slavery. The law provides for only one interference with property rights of slave-owners: "if any master or mistress shall have sexual or carnal intercourse with his or her servant or servants of the African race, he or she shall forfeit all claim to said servant or servants to the commonwealth; and if any white person shall be guilty of sexual intercourse with any of the African race, they shall be subject, on conviction thereof, to a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred, to the use of the Territory, and imprisonment not exceeding three years."

Feb 5, 1857 - Brigham Young preaches: "should the people follow a Bishop? Yes if he is a righteous man & does right but if he teaches wrong things & does wrong the people should not follow Him. But when this is the Case let the people thunder out the truth as it is. Then the bishop will see it. But unless the people Can point some better way let them follow the bishop."

Feb 5, 1860 - Brigham Young's office journal records: "Pres[ident] Young addressed the third Quorum of Seventies; most of his remarks were confined to the subject of drunkenness. He regretted very much its prevalence. He remarked it was not the drink that influenced men to wicked actions, but the drink weakened the body so that Evil Spirits had power over it."

Feb 5, 1862 - Brigham Young writes to the Mormon representative in Washington D. C. "…there was not a particle of authority given Congress by the Constitution to organize Territorial government…Such being the real fact on that point, what good reason can Congress urge against our admission to the family of States, our Constitution being strictly republican in form, and we having long ago proved our capability to sustain self government. Aside from the justness of our being relieved from our illegal colonial position, which we have borne so long and patiently, it most certainly is to their pecuniary interest to admit us, a view of so slight moment at present. You can inform the President that he need not appoint a Governor, Judges, etc., for Utah, or if he appoints them, that he can pay them their salaries there, and advise them to remain at home, for we have no use for them here." Young's letter doesn't mention the main obstacle to Utah statehood: polygamy.

Feb 5, 1871 - At a Sunday morning meeting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle "The Rev John C. Kimball A Unitarian Minister both Prayed & Preached 56 minutes upon the principles of their faith."

Feb 5, 1872 - While in prison, William A. Hickman publishes "Brigham Young's Destroying Angel,"First Mormon expose by confessed murderer. He is again excommunicated, this time by church court, on Jan 12, 1878. On Mar. 21, 1934, First Presidency approves Hickman's rebaptism and "his former blessings restored," which occur by proxy on May 5, 1934.

Feb 5, 1878 - At a High Priest's meeting in Spanish Fork, Utah, Zebedee Coltrin [baptized Jan. 9, 1831]recalls: "[I] First saw the Prophet Joseph at a prayer meeting at the house of father Morley. He was then a beardless young man. During the meeting the powers of darkeness were made manifest in a remarkable degree, causing some to make horrid noises, and others to throw themselves violently around, One man by the name of Lemon Copley, standing at the back side of the house was taken by a supernatural power, and thrown into the window. Then Joseph said to Lyman `Go and cast the devil out of Lemon'. He did so, and the devil entered into a brother by the name of Harvey Green and threw him upon the floor in convulsions. Then Joseph laid hands upon him and rebuked the spirit from him and from the house, upon which the spirit left him, and went outside among a crowd of men standing near the door and made a swath among them several feet wide, throwing them violently to the ground. . . . At Kirtland . . . at one time when Joseph was in the translating room, myself and others were talking about the gift of tongues, when the spirit of tongues fell upon me and I spoke under its influence. joseph came into the room and said, 'God bless you Brother Zebedee, that is the spirit of God.' He told me to continue, and the gift of tongues and prophecy rested upon the greater part of the brethren present and we continued speaking in tongues and prophesying through that day and the greater part of the following night."

Feb 5, 1899 - In an interview with the NEW YORK HERALD, President George Q. Cannon explains if a man's wife was barren, he might "go to Canada and marry another wife. He would not be violating our laws, and would not be in danger of prosecution unless the first wife should follow him there from Utah and prefer a charge of bigamy against him. He might go to Mexico and have a religious ceremony uniting him to another that would not violate our law." This is the first public admission that the Manifesto is not strictly adhered to.

Feb 5, 1942 - LDS teenager, Helmuth Heubner, Rudi Wobbe, and Karl-Heinze Schnibbe is arrested in Hamburg for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. Ten days later Heubner's branch president (who had once put a sign saying "Jews not allowed to enter" over the chapel door and also allowed broadcasts of Hitler to be part of church services) writes "Excommunicated" on Heubner's records. Seventeen-year-old Heubner, the "ringleader" is beheaded by the Nazis on October 27. His membership is later reinstated and his excommunication is termed a "mistake." Two teenage co-conspirators of Heubner, Rudi Wobbe and Karl-Heinze Schnibbe are both sent to labor camps. They both emigrate to the United States after the war. On January 8, 1985, Heubner's sixtieth birthday, they return to Hamburg where they, are treated as heros by the government of Hamburg. They place a wreath at the site of Heubner's execution. Says Wobbe, "After forty years, to come back to a city that had actually put us away in concentration camps and prisons ... now to be honored and taken around as guests of the city with the members of the government . . . it was surprising-even a bit uncomfortable."

Feb 5, 1949 - First Counselor J. Reuben Clark recommends anti-semitic PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION to Ernest L. Wilkinson, soon to be president of Brigham Young University. In Dec. 1957 Clark makes similar recommendation to Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. This may be reason Benson organizes secret surveillance of employees (especially Jews) in U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Feb 5, 1955 - First headline reference in CHURCH NEWS since 1931 to living LDS president as the "Prophet." Apparently due to Counselor J. Reuben Clark's criticism of adulation implied by using this title for the living president, "the Prophet" is associated with founder Joseph Smith in Church News headlines until after Clark's Death in 1961.

Feb 5, 1970 - BYU basketball game is disrupted by protest against LDS church's policy of denying priesthood ordination to African-Americans. While 150 Colorado State University student demonstrators scuffle with campus police and twenty Fort Collins policemen during half-time, someone throws Molotov cocktail on playing floor. When game resumes spectators throw raw eggs at BYU's players.

Feb 5, 1971 - Alvin R. Dyer, a Counselor in the First Presidency, writes to LDS sociologist Harold T. Christensen concerning a news story quoting Christensen: "Christensen said the percentages of college women who had premarital coitus increased from 10 percent in 1958 to 32 percent in 1968 at a western university "which represents the highly restrictive Mormon culture." Dyer says, "It would be helpful to us to have further information of this alarming condition; . . . How and by whom was the survey made which produced these percentages?" Christensen responds: ". . . much as I would like to comply with your present request, I am unable to do so because of my responsibility as a researcher to protect the anonymity of the individuals and institutions studied; and indeed my commitment to do so in the case of the Intermountain sample. To do otherwise would violate my sense of integrity, and so I must ask that you respect my commitment and responsibility as a scientist. One would not ask the physician to betray the confidences of his patients nor the marriage counselor, to give another example, to reveal the secrets of his clients. The researcher has a similar responsibility to his subject…"

"Feb 5, 1949 - First Counselor J. Reuben Clark recommends anti-semitic PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION to Ernest L. Wilkinson, soon to be president of Brigham Young University. In Dec. 1957 Clark makes similar recommendation to Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. This may be reason Benson organizes secret surveillance of employees (especially Jews) in U.S. Department of Agriculture."

Holy crap!

Angela Davis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Feb 5, 1949 - First Counselor J. Reuben Clark
> recommends anti-semitic PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF
> ZION to Ernest L. Wilkinson, soon to be president
> of Brigham Young University. In Dec. 1957 Clark
> makes similar recommendation to Apostle Ezra Taft
> Benson,

A great book about soviet dis-information can be found on amazon called:

Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom Attacking Religion and Promoting Terrorism


It's funny how God forgot to tell these LDS men of influence that PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION was a 1905 Russian forgery. Silly God and his secrets.
==================================
Another link:
EXCLUSIVE: New book reveals how KGB operation seeded Muslim countries with anti-American, anti-Jewish propaganda during the 1970s, laying the groundwork for Islamist terrorism against U.S. and Israel

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2348191/EXCLUSIVE-KGB-operation-seeded-Muslim-countries-anti-American-anti-Jewish-propaganda-1970s-laying-groundwork-Islamist-terrorism-U-S-Israeli-targets.html

===================================

The highest-ranking Soviet-bloc intelligence officer ever to defect to the West,Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, claims in a new book that anti-American Islamic terrorism had its roots in a secret 1970s-era KGB plot to harm but the United States and Israel by seeding Muslim countries with carefully targeted propaganda.

Yuri Andropov, the KGB chief for 15 years before he became the Soviet premier, sent hundreds of agents and thousands of copies of propaganda literature to Muslim countries.


'By 1972,' according to the book, 'Andropov's disinformation machinery was working around the clock to persuade the Islamic world that Israel and the United States intended to transform the rest of the world into a Zionist fiefdom.'

'According to Andropov, the Islamic world was a petri dish in which the KGB community could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought.'

Andropov began his leadership of the KGB just months before the 1967 Six-Day War between Arabs and Israelis, in which Israel humiliated the key Soviet allies Syria and Egypt. And he decided to settle the score by training Palestinian militants to hijack El Al airplanes and bomb sites in Jerusalem.

But more shocking, Andropov commissioned the first Arabic translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian-forged 1905 propaganda book that alleged Jews were plotting to take over Europe - and were being aided by the United States.


The Protocols book, Pacepa claims, became 'the basis for much of Hitler's anti-Semitic philosophy.' And the KGB, he writes, disseminated 'thousands of copies' in Muslim countries during the 1970s.

In 1972, Pacepa writes, his DIE agency 'received from the KGB an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion along with "documentary" material, also in Arabic, "proving" that the United States was a Zionist country."


He was 'ordered,' he adds, 'to "discreetly" disseminate both "documents" within its targeted Islamic countries.'

'During my later years in Romania,' he recalls, 'every month the DIE disseminated thousands of copies throughout its Islamic sphere of influence. In the meetings I had with my counterparts in the Hungarian and Bulgarian services, with whom I enjoyed particularly close relations at that time, I learned that they were also sending such influence agents into their own Islamic spheres of influence.'


The KGB took 'secret credit' for a host of terror attacks against Israeli targets in the years before Pacepa left Romania, he claims, listing eleven such incidents. Among them was the May 30, 1972 attack on Ben Gurion Airport, which left 22 dead and 76 wounded; and the July 4, 1975 bombing in ZIon Square, Jerusalem, in which 15 lost their lives and another 62 were maimed.

Pacepa and Rychlak conclude that much of the anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and elsewhere can be traced back to Soviet clandestine operations, in which he himself played a major role.

Exactly what I said.

I'm sure this has been asked and responded to before, but what is the source for these "this day in Mormon history" posts? Is there an almanac? I would love to get a copy!

The notion that leaders of the church would advocate taking an action that violates both the letter and the spirit of a law, just because it makes them 'happy' is such neat religious concept!!

It reminds me...

There was a time when missionaries serving in Mexico had to leave the country every 6 months to get new visas. Apparently a lot of hilarity broke out on the train trips to the border and back. But by the time I got there, in 1965, the church had proudly worked out a system that suited them better. And they bragged about it!

The APs would come around to get our signatures on the new application and a few days later they'd bring us photocopies of the new visas. The originals were kept in a safe, along with our passports.

They were bribing someone, and obviously ghawd was pleased with them. It meant more proselyting time!