diff --git a/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py b/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
index e3f5be0..9e9ac82 100644
--- a/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
+++ b/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
@@ -2568,7 +2568,7 @@ class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable):
           history. For user code calling back into IPython's machinery, this
           should be set to False.
         silent : bool
-          If True, avoid side-effets, such as implicit displayhooks, history,
+          If True, avoid side-effects, such as implicit displayhooks and
           and logging.  silent=True forces store_history=False.
         """
         if (not raw_cell) or raw_cell.isspace():
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/ipkernel.py b/IPython/zmq/ipkernel.py
index 9b7309e..ef7a934 100755
--- a/IPython/zmq/ipkernel.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/ipkernel.py
@@ -331,6 +331,7 @@ class Kernel(Configurable):
             content = parent[u'content']
             code = content[u'code']
             silent = content[u'silent']
+            store_history = content.get(u'store_history', not silent)
         except:
             self.log.error("Got bad msg: ")
             self.log.error("%s", parent)
@@ -367,7 +368,7 @@ class Kernel(Configurable):
         reply_content = {}
         try:
             # FIXME: the shell calls the exception handler itself.
-            shell.run_cell(code, store_history=not silent, silent=silent)
+            shell.run_cell(code, store_history=store_history, silent=silent)
         except:
             status = u'error'
             # FIXME: this code right now isn't being used yet by default,
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/kernelmanager.py b/IPython/zmq/kernelmanager.py
index 8dc1f5b..b46b9b3 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/kernelmanager.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/kernelmanager.py
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ class ShellSocketChannel(ZMQSocketChannel):
         """
         raise NotImplementedError('call_handlers must be defined in a subclass.')
 
-    def execute(self, code, silent=False,
+    def execute(self, code, silent=False, store_history=True,
                 user_variables=None, user_expressions=None, allow_stdin=None):
         """Execute code in the kernel.
 
@@ -229,7 +229,12 @@ class ShellSocketChannel(ZMQSocketChannel):
             A string of Python code.
 
         silent : bool, optional (default False)
-            If set, the kernel will execute the code as quietly possible.
+            If set, the kernel will execute the code as quietly possible, and
+            will force store_history to be False.
+
+        store_history : bool, optional (default True)
+            If set, the kernel will store command history.  This is forced
+            to be False if silent is True.
 
         user_variables : list, optional
             A list of variable names to pull from the user's namespace.  They
@@ -267,7 +272,7 @@ class ShellSocketChannel(ZMQSocketChannel):
 
         # Create class for content/msg creation. Related to, but possibly
         # not in Session.
-        content = dict(code=code, silent=silent,
+        content = dict(code=code, silent=silent, store_history=store_history,
                        user_variables=user_variables,
                        user_expressions=user_expressions,
                        allow_stdin=allow_stdin,
diff --git a/docs/source/development/messaging.txt b/docs/source/development/messaging.txt
index a46bce5..c98041d 100644
--- a/docs/source/development/messaging.txt
+++ b/docs/source/development/messaging.txt
@@ -158,14 +158,19 @@ Message type: ``execute_request``::
     # A boolean flag which, if True, signals the kernel to execute
     # this code as quietly as possible.  This means that the kernel
     # will compile the code with 'exec' instead of 'single' (so
-    # sys.displayhook will not fire), and will *not*:
+    # sys.displayhook will not fire), forces store_history to be False, 
+    # and will *not*:
     #   - broadcast exceptions on the PUB socket
     #   - do any logging
-    #   - populate any history
     #
     # The default is False.
     'silent' : bool,
 
+    # A boolean flag which, if True, signals the kernel to populate history
+    # The default is True if silent is False.  If silent is True, store_history
+    # is forced to be False.
+    'store_history' : bool,
+
     # A list of variable names from the user's namespace to be retrieved.  What
     # returns is a JSON string of the variable's repr(), not a python object.
     'user_variables' : list,
@@ -308,7 +313,7 @@ Execution counter (old prompt number)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 The kernel has a single, monotonically increasing counter of all execution
-requests that are made with ``silent=False``.  This counter is used to populate
+requests that are made with ``store_history=True``.  This counter is used to populate
 the ``In[n]``, ``Out[n]`` and ``_n`` variables, so clients will likely want to
 display it in some form to the user, which will typically (but not necessarily)
 be done in the prompts.  The value of this counter will be returned as the
@@ -325,9 +330,9 @@ Message type: ``execute_reply``::
       # One of: 'ok' OR 'error' OR 'abort'
       'status' : str,
 
-      # The global kernel counter that increases by one with each non-silent
-      # executed request.  This will typically be used by clients to display
-      # prompt numbers to the user.  If the request was a silent one, this will
+      # The global kernel counter that increases by one with each request that 
+      # stores history.  This will typically be used by clients to display
+      # prompt numbers to the user.  If the request did not store history, this will
       # be the current value of the counter in the kernel.
       'execution_count' : int,
     }