TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY: 13 July

[Hemidakota]

1843 - The Prophet Joseph records that he "was in conversation with Emma most of the day." He doesn't record the topic of conversation, however, he had recorded the revelation on marriage the previous day and Hyrum had taken it to Emma and read it to her. Also on this date, he "approved the revised laws of the [Nauvoo] Legion," and authorized "the issuing of Legion scrip to the amount of $500" (History of the Church, 5:509).

1846 - The first of the volunteer companies of the Mormon Battalion was enlisted in response to a request delivered to Brigham Young two weeks earlier by Captain James Allen of the United States Army. The Battalion would leave Kanesville, Iowa, a week later.

1847 - Word came that President Brigham Young was to ill with Mountain Fever to move forward that day. After consultation, Orson Pratt was chosen to lead an advance party of twenty-three wagons and forty-two men to find the route of the Donner-Reed party over the mountains. The main camp remained at the head of Echo Canyon to wait for Brigham Young's party to arrive. Orson Pratt and his party left the main group and moved down the canyon.

1859 - Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, conducts a two-hour interview with President Brigham Young. It is published in New York in August and is considered by some to be the first interview style article printed in an American Newspaper.

1993 - The Church is officially recognized in Madagascar.

1996 - The reconstructed Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where Brigham Young had been sustained as the President of the Church on December 27, 1847, is dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley.

1997 - A parade commemorating the Church's pioneer sesquicentennial takes place in Rome, Italy.