155 years ago today - Nov 4, 1860

Capt Gibson spoke two hours & gave a vary interesting account of his mission [and] the dealings of the Lord with him. ... He had an interview with the Jappaneese Embassay and was the ownly man in America who saw them that Could Communicate with them without interpeters ...

[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

170 years ago today - Nov 4, 1845

[Wilford Woodruff] I retired to rest & dreamed of being in A ship & a great storm arose And it seemed as though the ship would be swallowed up but it out lived the storm. I also Saw A large serpent which brought forth other serpents.

[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

185 years ago today - Nov 4, 1830

... -he asked Joseph [Smith, Jr.] whether he could not ascertain what his [Orson Pratt] mission was and Joseph answered that he would see. & asked Pratt and John Whitmer to go up stairs with him. and arriving there Joseph produced a small stone called a seer stone. and putting it into a hat soon commenced speaking [producing D&C 34].- Orson Pratt's recollection at David Whitmer home

[Source: Palmyra Magic Timeline, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/palmyra-magic-timeline/]

40 years ago today - Nov 03, 1975

U.S. President Gerald Ford appoints Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft as his National Security Affairs (NSA) advisor, replacing Henry Kissinger, who had been both secretary of state and NSA advisor. Scowcroft is the first Latter-day Saint to serve in this top position. He serves again in this position under U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush (1989–93).

70 years ago today - Nov 03, 1945

President George Albert Smith meets with U.S. President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C., to obtain permission for the Church to send food and supplies to the Saints in war-torn Europe.

105 years ago today - Thursday, Nov 3, 1910

[John Henry Smith] Politics is burning hot. Many dirty and unfair things are being said by both parties.

[Source: Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]

125 years ago today - Nov 3, 1890 (Monday)

A contract was signed for the erection of the first beet sugar plant in Utah, to cost $400,000.

[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]

135 years ago today - Nov 3, 1880

Pres[iden]t. A. Hatch of Wasatch [Utah] Stake was criticised for his aversion to Polygamy& letting Dr Russell denounce J[oseph]. F. Smith.

[Source: Franklin D. Richards Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]

165 years ago today - Nov 3, 1850

Fredericka Bremer wrote of a visit to Nauvoo, "We are now in sight of Nauvoo, formerly the capital of the Mormon district, and the magnificent ruin of their former temple is standing on its elevated site." .

[Source: Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple]

180 years ago today - Nov 3, 1835

Joseph receives a revelation for the Twelve, stating that they must humble themselves and be patient with his brother William. He then dedicates the School of the Elders, promising a "glorious endowment that God has in store for the faithful."

[Source: Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]

180 years ago today - Nov 3, 1835

Eleven of the Twelve are chastened for not being sufficiently humble or equal in financial affairs and for criticizing William Smith.

[Source: Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]

20 years ago today - Nov 2, 1995

The announcement that Presiding Bishop Merrill J. Bateman will be the new president of BYU, effective 1 Jan. He is also appointed a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Despite Bateman's Ph.D. in economics from MIT, the appointment of a general authority to BYU's helm has the appearance of guaranteeing that the LDS hierarchy will not need to deal with a vigorous advocate for academic freedom at the largest LDS campus. This is how the Chronicle of Higher Education views it. Within months Bateman is the center of national controversy over his speech to BYU students against moral relativism, the published version of which lifts numerous phrases (without quotation marks) from a recently published article by neo-conservative scholar Gertrude Himmelfarb. She is cited (with quotation marks) for only one sentence and phrase of many that Bateman's speech/article interweaves with slight changes in a manner familiar to anyone who has read plagarized papers by freshman students. Bateman publicly apologizes to Himmelfarb and insists that the controversy is about "one" misplaced quotation mark, yet the public image remains that BYU's president participates in the "moral relativism" he condemns.

[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

95 years ago today - Nov 2, 1920

[Heber J. Grant] My wife and I went and voted. When I came to look over the ticket that I had checked I found that I had voted for nine more Republicans than I had Democrats. It is amusing for me to pose as a Democrat, and when I come to vote at our State elections and National elections divide my vote for a larger number of Republicans than Democrats. I always go over the ticket and try to pick out the best men without regard to which party they belong.

[Source: Diary of Heber J. Grant, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

125 years ago today - Nov 2, 1890

[Abraham H. Cannon] In relation to S[amuel] F. Ball who desires to go to Mexico and get a fourth wife, Father [George Q. Cannon] said it could not be done, as such things had ceased to occur even there. One young man who recently had this privilege, came back and allowed the knowledge of it to go out, and thus put the Church in danger. Father feels, as I do, that it is best to entirely cease the performance of such marriages for the present and thus make the brethren more appreciative of present blessings. ...

[Source: Abraham H. Cannon (Author), Edward Leo Lyman (Editor), Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle: The Diaries of Abraham H. Cannon, 1889-1895, Signature Books]

130 years ago today - Monday, Nov 2, 1885

[John Henry Smith] Bro. F. D. Richards told Bro. M. Thatcher and I that a charge of adultery had been made against Bro. [apostle] Albert Cartington.

[Source: Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]

180 years ago today - Nov 2, 1835

Plastering and the hard finishing on the outside of the [Kirtland] temple have begun. Joseph is busy setting up the School of the Elders. He goes with Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and Frederick G. Williams to Willoughby College to hear a Dr. Piexotto lecture on physics. They learn that he will come to Kirtland to teach Hebrew.

[Source: Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]

20 years ago today - Nov 1, 1995

Five BYU professors submit an officially-commissioned, four-year study of LDS applicants for freshmen admission (1971-88). Findings show that active Mormons who attend BYU "even for only one semester" have significantly higher rates of temple marriage, tithing payment, and belief in LDS doctrines than Mormons who attend other colleges. Although survey participants are age twenty-six to mid-forties, 20 percent "of the marriage respondents in both groups remianed childless." BYU's spokesperson says that the executive committee of the Board of Trustees decides to suppress this report because "we already get a lot of pressure about admission to BYU and release of this study would only make that worse." Since 1973 the enrollment limit of 27,000 means that "only a small and shrinking minority of Mormon youth," can attend BYU. No spokesperson at LDS headquarters or at BYU comments on the evidence of long-term birth-control by married couples who are actively LDS. Despite contrary statements of BYU's spokesperson and sources at church headquarters, BYU president Bateman denies in February 1996 that the board has made any decision about circulating this study's findings.

[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

40 years ago today - Nov 1, 1975

A Church News article about Kathy Devine, an LDS shotputter and Olympic aspirant who criticizes those who "think all girls should be out baking cookies somewhere."

[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

115 years ago today - Nov 1, 1900; Thursday

Went to my Temple meeting. Pres[iden]t. [Lorenzo] Snow said he did not know how it would be done but Plural Marriage will again be returned. "I am just sure of it" he said. Went to Pres[iden]t. [Joseph F.] Smith with a matter to decide.

[Source: Abraham Owen Woodruff, Diary]

120 years ago today - Nov 1, 1895

[Thomas A. Clawson Diary] "The Political Matter and things the politicians are using to influence voters are shaking Zion to the center and I fear that apostacy is stalking abroad among the Saints. The Democrats are trying to drag the First Presidency into Politics by saying they are using their influence &c. and I am very sorry to see many of our brethren are talking loudly against the Lord's Anointed in consequence thereof."

[Source: Diary Excerpts of Thomas A. Clawson, Signature Books Library, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]