TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY: 30 May

[Hemidakota]

1831 - About this time, Parley P. Pratt, John Murdock, and several other Elders, approached the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning spiritual manifestations in the Church. Some members were experiencing "some very strange spiritual operations . . . which were disgusting rather than edifying. . . . and which were not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the Gospel." After discussing the manner and then joining in prayer, the Prophet Joseph dictated the revelation known as Doctrine and Covenants 50. (History of the Church, 1:170)

1834 - Zion's Camp traveled through Springfield, Illinois, and encamped about three miles to the west of the city on Spring Creek. They reported there was much curiosity in the city about where they were going, but no desire to harm them. Word was received that Hyrum Smith and his company of men had passed through fifty miles to the north the day before. Many horses were afflicted with colic and would bloat. Using his own homemade remedy, "Brother Ezra Thayre administered medicine mixed in a quart stone bottle . . . and would almost invariably cure a sick horse in a few minutes" (History of the Church, 2:76-77)

1845 - The nine defendants who had been charged with the murder of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, were acquitted in a Carthage, Illinois, court house.

1912 - President Joseph F. Smith dedicates the Maeser Memorial Building, the first building on the "upper campus" of Brigham Young University.

1915 - William Paul Daniels is baptized in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then returns to Cape Town, South Africa. He was the first black South African to join the Church.

1927 - President Charles W. Nibley of the First Presidency dedicates the Mormon Battalion Monument on the Utah State Capitol grounds.

1994 - President Ezra Taft Benson dies in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age ninety-four after serving over fifty years as a General Authority, eight and a half years as President of the Church. He is remembered for his testimony of the Book of Mormon, his talk on pride, his love of the United States Constitution, and service as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1999 - The first chapel in Greece is dedicated in Athens by Elder Charles A. Didier of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Also, the first seminary building in Alaska was dedicated in Chugiak, a suburb of Anchorage.