A Brief History This article presents a timeline of the history of Mormonism. Digging Deeper On October 27, 1838, Missouri’s governor issued an order for all Mormons to leave the state or face extermination! On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), was shot to death by a mob with blackened faces in a Carthage, Illinois jail while awaiting trial for treason. On June 9, 1856, 500 Mormons left Iowa and headed for Salt Lake City, Utah. So eager to leave the religious persecution behind them, they started their trek on foot…
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A Brief History On June 9, 1856, 500 Mormons left Iowa and headed for Salt Lake City, Utah. So eager to leave the religious persecution behind them, they started their trek on foot pulling 2 wheeled handcarts! Digging Deeper If you are familiar with the stories of Mormons walking to Utah and pulling handcarts, you might not know that only about 10 percent of the Latter Day Saints (what Mormons actually are called, or LDS) that traveled to Utah before 1868 made the trip on foot with handcarts. The other 90 percent had horse, mule, or oxen drawn wagons. Although…
A Brief History On June 5, 1916, Louis Brandeis was sworn in as the first Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Here we list 10 Jewish “firsts” of either significance or curious interest. (Bonus: The First Jewish Oscar Winner was Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur, 1936.) Digging Deeper 10. Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court, 1916. Justice Brandeis paved the way for current Jewish justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. (Making 3 of the 9 justices Jewish. The other 6 are all Catholics.) Ginsburg became the first Jewish female Justice of…
A Brief History On June 2, 1692, the trial of Bridget Bishop began, starting a reign of terror in Salem, Massachusetts known as The Salem Witch Trials. The hysterical idiots responsible (unless you believe in witches) executed (by hanging) 20 people from 1692 to 1693 before the madness ended. Scores of others had been accused, many of whom confessed to avoid execution, and scores were imprisoned. At least five of those imprisoned died while in jail. Cracked fact: No “witch” was burned at the stake in these trials. Execution was by hanging. Digging Deeper Despite the common name of this…
A Brief History On May 31, 1962, the nation of Israel hanged Nazi Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann, one of history’s most evil people, for war crimes. Eichmann had been living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and living the good life as a Mercedes-Benz supervisor until he was kidnapped by Israeli secret agents. Digging Deeper During World War II Eichmann had joined the SD (Security Service) and worked as the head of “Jewish Affairs” coercing Jews into leaving Germany or facing relocation to Jewish “ghettos.” In 1941, the German “solution” to the “Jewish problem” was to move Jews to extermination camps and…