Mormonism in the 20th century explained
This is a timeline of major events in Mormonism in the 20th century.
1900s
1900
- January 25: The U.S. Congress votes to not admit B. H. Roberts, who had been denied a seat since being elected in 1898, because of his practice of polygamy.[1]
- April 19: Reed Smoot is ordained an apostle.
1901
1902
1903
- January: Reed Smoot, an apostle, is elected by the state legislature to the 58th congress as a U.S. Senator. Controversy over his election arises immediately.
- February: Despite allegations and controversy, Reed Smoot is allowed to be seated in the Senate.
- March: Reed Smoot takes the senatorial oath and formally becomes a member of the senate.
- October 15: Brigham Young Academy becomes Brigham Young University.
- November 5: The LDS Church acquires Carthage Jail, to be used as a historic site.
- Samoan edition of the Book of Mormon.
1904
- January – Reed Smoot submits carefully prepared rebuttals to allegations against him and his church.
- March – The Reed Smoot Hearings begin, evaluating whether Reed Smoot should be allowed to be a senator.
- April 6 – Joseph F. Smith issues the "Second Manifesto", which reinforces the 1890 Manifesto and prescribes excommunication for those who continued to practice plural marriage.
- April 14 - The LDS Church purchases 25 acres in Independence, Missouri, originally part of the 63-acre Temple Lot from 1831. Church leaders intended this to be the site for a temple in Zion, fulfilling a prophecy of Joseph Smith.[7]
1905
1906
1907
- January 10: The LDS Church becomes debt-free.
- February 20: After more than two years of hearings, the Smoot Hearings are resolved by a vote. The republican majority overturns objections to his seating. Reed Smoot serves another 26 years.
- June: The Smith Family Farm is acquired for the LDS Church.
- December 7: Charles W. Nibley becomes the Presiding Bishop and brings financial reforms, including tithing payments only in cash, no longer taking donations in kind.
- December 14: Converts in Europe are advised to remain in their home countries instead of gathering to Utah.
- Zion's Printing and Publishing Company is started at Independence, Missouri by the LDS Church.
1908
- April 8: The General Priesthood Committee is created.
- October: A financial auditing report is presented at General Conference for the first time.[8]
1909
- November: The First Presidency issues an official statement regarding questions concerning the Creation of the earth and the theories of evolution and the origin of man.
- LDS Church purchased property in Far West, Missouri, including the former temple lot.
- LDS priesthood meetings begin to be held weekly.
- Japanese translation of Book of Mormon, the first in an east Asian language.
1910s
1910
1911
- February 10: Three popular BYU professors appear before church leaders for teaching evolution.[9] After becoming a public controversy, the professors resign later that year. Historian Leonard Arrington called this Mormonism's "first brush with modernism".[10]
- March 28: John W. Taylor is excommunicated for performing a plural marriage despite the Second Manifesto issued by church president Joseph F. Smith. With this excommunication, the practice of new polygamous marriages is believed to be finally abolished. Polygamists who were married prior to 1905 continue to remain in good standing with the LDS Church including, but not limited to, the church's president, Joseph F. Smith.
- April 15: Theodore Roosevelt publishes an article in Collier's magazine defending the Mormons, in response to an ongoing anti-Mormon campaign in national magazines.[11] [12]
- April–May: Mexican Revolution. The Battle of Ciudad Juárez brings war to the doorstep of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico in the Casas Grandes valley.
- June 9: The Hotel Utah opens across from Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
- August: James E. Talmage denounces the Michigan relics as fakes.
- September 16: A photographer threatens to publicly display unauthorized photographs of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple unless the church pays $100,000. Instead president Joseph F. Smith arranges the church to publish a book containing its own such photos.
- October: A Victim of the Mormons (Danish: Mormonens Offer) a Danish silent film directed by August Blom is released. The film was controversial for demonizing the Mormon religion, and its box-office success is cited for initiating a decade of anti-Mormon propaganda films in America.
- October 26: Stake missionaries are first called, in the Granite Utah Stake.
- November 29: The M.I.A. Scouts are created as the first official LDS organization of the Boy Scouts of America.[13]
1912
1913
1915
1916
- June 30: "The Father and the Son", an official declaration from the First Presidency, discusses the identities of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
1917
1918
1919
- April: General Conference is postponed to June because of the Spanish flu epidemic.[8] [14]
- November 27: Laie Hawaii Temple first outside continental United States, and thus also arguably first outside North America and first in Polynesia.
- LDS Church membership reaches 500,000.
1920s
1920
- December 2: Apostle David O. McKay and Hugh J. Cannon, editor of the Improvement Era, are set apart for a year-long tour of LDS missions and schools across the world.[15] As the most widely traveled general authority,[16] McKay retains a vision for worldwide church growth.[17]
- The LDS Church closes its system of academies.
1921
- Lectures on Faith removed from Standard Works.
- New programs for young adults are created, called M-Men and Gleaners.
- Joseph Fielding Smith's Essentials in Church History is published, an influential book of devotional LDS history that remained in print for more than 50 years.[18]
1922
1923
1924
1925
- July 18: In the wake of the Scopes Trial, the First Presidency issues an official statement, an edited version of the 1909 statement, regarding questions about the Creation of the earth, the theory of evolution, and the origin of man.[22] [23]
- February 3: The Salt Lake Mission Home is dedicated, for use in training of LDS missionaries before they depart for their assignments.
- April 21: The LDS Church buys a controlling interest in a Salt Lake City radio station, which it changes from KZN to KSL and still maintains today.[24]
- December 25: South America is dedicated for missionary proselyting, by LDS Apostle Melvin J. Ballard in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930s
1930
1931
- April 4: The "Church Section" of the Deseret News is created, which would become the Church News.
- LDS High School closed.
- All LDS Church junior colleges are transferred to their respective states (Utah, Arizona, and Idaho), although Ricks College remains in church ownership.
1932
- April 2: A new emphasis is placed on Word of Wisdom observance, especially in tobacco abstinence.
1933
1935
- April 20: Harold B. Lee, a stake president and future LDS Church president, is called to create the church's Welfare Program.
- June 21: The Hill Cumorah Monument is dedicated, with a golden statue of the Angel Moroni, on the site where Joseph Smith said he was led to the records of the Book of Mormon.[25]
- August 22: Gordon B. Hinckley, a newly returned missionary and future LDS Church president, begins works on the church's Radio, Publicity, and Mission Literature Committee.
- A pageant is first performed in Palmyra, New York, which would become the Hill Cumorah Pageant.
1936
1937
1938
- August 8: J. Reuben Clark calls for church educators to focus on building students' faith in his speech "The Charted Course of the Church in Education", which became a classic text influencing the mission of CES.[27]
- August 14: Deseret Industries is started.
- November: The Genealogical Society of Utah (now called FamilySearch) begins to microfilm records of genealogical data. This grew into a massive collection from around the world, which is being digitized today.
- Local church education boards are replaced by the new General Church Board of Education.
1939
- June 19: Liberty Jail is acquired for the LDS Church.
- August 24: All LDS missionaries in Europe are called to return home, due to the buildup of World War II.
- Portuguese translation of Book of Mormon.
1940s
1940
1941
1942
- April: Because of war-time travel restrictions, General Conference was limited to certain priesthood leaders in the Assembly Hall, and not the general public.[8] [14]
- May: The Improvement Era begins devoting an issue for each General Conference, publishing all the talks.[14]
- October: The LDS Servicemen's Committee is created, headed by Apostle Harold B. Lee.
- October: Helmuth Hübener, a German Latter-day Saint is the youngest opponent of the Third Reich to be sentenced to death by the infamous Special People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) and executed.
- The first time an evening meeting of General Conference is held.[8]
1943
- LDS Church apostle Richard R. Lyman was discovered to be cohabitating with a woman other than his legal wife, in a relationship that he defined as a polygamous marriage. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943 at age 73, on grounds of a violation of the law of chastity, which any practice of post-Second Manifesto polygamy constituted. He was later rebaptized and died in the church. He is the most recent apostle to be excommunicated.
- 1943 October 7: Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson are ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
1944
1945
- April 12: Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at funeral of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- May 14: Heber J. Grant, the last LDS Church president to have practiced polygamy, dies.
- May 21: George Albert Smith becomes the eighth president of the church.
- September: Following the Japanese surrender, ending World War II, new mission presidents are called to reopen missions that were closed during the war.
- September 23: The Idaho Falls Temple is dedicated.
- October: The priesthood session of General Conference is held for the first time.[8]
- November 3: New LDS Church president George Albert Smith and U.S. president Harry S Truman meet and discuss sending humanitarian supplies to war-torn Europe.
- The publication of , by Fawn Brodie. Brodie's most notable Mormon critic, Brigham Young University professor Hugh Nibley, published a scathing 62-page pamphlet entitled No, Ma'am, That's Not History, asserting that Brodie had cited sources supportive only of her conclusions while conveniently ignoring others. Brodie considered Nibley's pamphlet to be "a well-written, clever piece of Mormon propaganda" but dismissed it as "a flippant and shallow piece". Brodie's book becomes a best seller, and has not got out of print yet.
- Raid on the Short Creek Community, prefiguring that of 1953.
1946
1947
1948
- George Albert Smith is said to have petitioned the Lord to lift the ban on blacks receiving the priesthood. He claims he is denied. The ban was not lifted until 1978.
1949
- October: The first public broadcast of General Conference on television. Conference talks are given time limits for the first time, to fit with broadcast station timetables.[8]
1950s
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
- January 8: Student Wards and Stakes are first organized, at Brigham Young University.
- October 3: The Relief Society Building is dedicated, across from Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
1957
1958
1959
- BYU Studies, a journal for LDS scholars, commences publication.
1960s
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
- January 1: The Home Teaching program replaces Ward Teaching, and is placed under Melchizedek Priesthood quorums as part of the LDS Church's correlation effort.[37]
- January: Priesthood Executive Committees and Correlation Councils are launched at the ward level.
- February 17: Centro Escolar Benemérito de las Américas, an LDS preparatory school in Mexico, holds its first classes.[38]
- April 22: At the 1964 New York World's Fair, the LDS Church opens the Mormon Pavilion and debuts the short film Man's Search for Happiness.
- October: David O. McKay followed doctor's advice to not attend General Conference but he sent two messages to be read by his sons, marking the first time a president's message was delivered by someone else.[8]
- October 3: Family Home Evening is reemphasized, with a new manual and training, and increasing from once per month to one night per week (which became Monday in 1970).[39]
- November 17: The Oakland Temple is dedicated in California.[40]
- Joseph W. B. Johnson, in Ghana, claims he was told by Jesus to preach the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story to the Ghanaians. Over time, he converts 1,000 people,[41] all who cannot hold priesthood in the church until the revelation received in 1978.[42]
- Independent Latter Day Saint congregations in Ghana develop in response to ban on black priesthood.
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970s
1970
1971
- January: Ensign, New Era, and Friend magazines are first published; several publications are discontinued.
- February: One Bad Apple released by The Osmonds reaches No. 1 in Billboard's Hot 100 Chart and stayed there for five weeks; it also reached No. 6 on the R&B chart.[50] The members of the Osmonds are devout LDS, and their religion was discussed in many popular media outlets.
- June 8: The Genesis Group is formed. It becomes an official church auxiliary dedicated to serving the needs of black members, who cannot hold the priesthood at this time.
- September 1: Relief Society dues are dropped and all LDS women are automatically enrolled.
- November 1: Richard L. Evans dies.
- December 2: Marvin J. Ashton is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- Church building provided in Jerusalem for large numbers of LDS tourists.
1972
1973
- February: Agricultural missionary work is introduced in South America.
- April 7: The Welfare Services Department is created by the Priesthood Correlation Program, combining existing services, including the Welfare Program.
- June : The Plan, a concept album by the Osmonds is released. Although it is not one of their more successful albums, it explicitly deals with Mormon theology, including the plan of salvation.
- December 26: After serving for little more than a year as president, Harold B. Lee dies.
- December 30: Spencer W. Kimball becomes the 12th president of the LDS Church.
1974
1975
1976
1977
- April: General Conference is reduced from 3 days down to 2 days, and moves from April 6 to the first Sunday in April and October.[8]
- May 14: The title Young Men is adopted for the Aaronic priesthood program.
- September 19: The Mormon sex in chains case becomes a major scandal in the UK, after a missionary is abducted in Surrey. The coverage was extensive in part because the case was considered so anomalous, involving as it did the issue of rape of a man by a woman.
1978
- March 31: Stake conferences are changed from quarterly to semiannual.
- April 1: The name extraction program is announced for local members to identify deceased persons from vital records and prepare their names for proxy temple ordinances.[59] [60]
- June 1: Spencer W. Kimball receives confirmation and revelation after supplicating the Lord regarding blacks and the priesthood. Moved by the exceeding faith of the Genesis Group, and moved by the dedication and perseverance of the mulattos in Brazil in building the São Paulo Brazil Temple, he takes the matter before the Lord, as many previous presidents of the church have done.
- June 9: Spencer W. Kimball, after receiving the revelation, and discussing the matter with the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Quorum of the Seventy, announces that the ban on blacks receiving the priesthood has been lifted, and all males may receive the priesthood according to their worthiness, regardless of race. Despite previous understanding that blacks were not to receive the priesthood until the millennium, the members of the church receive the announcement with jubilation and it gains worldwide press attention.
- June 23: Joseph Freeman, Jr., 26, the first black man to gain the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, went in the Salt Lake Temple with his wife and 5 sons for sacred ordinances. Thomas S. Monson, a member of the church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles, conducted the marriage and sealing ordinances. This event shows that blacks not only are able to gain the priesthood, but are able to interracially marry in the temple with the church's blessing. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 24, 1978)
- June 30: Spencer W. Kimball dedicates the Monument to Women Memorial Garden in Nauvoo, Illinois.[61]
- August 19: Delbert L. Stapley dies.
- September 9: The Missionary Training Center opens in Provo, Utah, replacing the Language Training Mission and also the Mission Home in Salt Lake City.
- September 17: Battlestar Galactica first airs on American television. It is produced by church member Glen A. Larson, and he incorporated many themes from Mormon theology into the shows.
- September 30: N. Eldon Tanner reads Official Declaration—2 in General Conference, and it is unanimously adopted as the word and will of the Lord. This is the declaration released publicly earlier in 1978, allowing blacks to receive the priesthood.
- September 30: General authority emeritus status is introduced for those above age 70, with the exception of the First Presidency and the Apostles.
- October 1: James E. Faust is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- October 30: São Paulo Brazil Temple opened, the first in South America, Latin America and in Brazil.
- Gospel Principles, an official church lesson manual, is released.
- LDS Church membership surpasses four million.[62]
1979
1980s
1980
- March 2: LDS Church meetings are consolidated into a "block" schedule on Sundays, containing Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, Primary, Young Women, Young Men, priesthood, and Relief Society.
- April 6: The LDS Church celebrates its sesquicentennial, and during General Conference Spencer W. Kimball dedicates the reconstructed log home where the church was founded in 1830.[64]
- May 3: The discovery of the original Anthon Transcript is reported in the Church News.[65] It is later revealed to be one of the early Mark Hofmann forgeries in the 1980s.
- October: Tokyo Japan Temple opens, the first in Asia, and in Japan.
1981
- April 3: The "Three-fold Mission of the Church" (Perfect the Saints, Proclaim the Gospel, and Redeem the Dead) is declared at General Conference by church president Spencer W. Kimball.[66]
- May 5: The LDS Church releases a statement opposing the placement of MX missiles in Utah, leading to a reversal of the Air Force plans.[67]
- June 25: The LDS Church announces plans to install satellite dishes at its stake centers, for the purpose of receiving worldwide church programs, such as General Conference.
- July 23: Gordon B. Hinckley is called as third counselor in the First Presidency, due to the physical weakness of Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, and Marion G. Romney. Hinckley is referred to in the press as the "acting president of the church" because Kimball, Tanner, and Romney are largely out of the public eye.
- July 23: Neal A. Maxwell is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, filling the vacancy left by Hinckley's call to the First Presidency.
- September 26: New revised editions are published for the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. They include new sections added to the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as new cross-references, footnotes, index, and other study helps.
- Russian & Polish editions of the Book of Mormon.
1982
- April 2: Local congregations are now only required to fund 4% of building their new meetinghouses, with the remaining 96% paid by the LDS Church's general fund.
- June 1: Ground broken for construction of the Triad Center on June 1, 1982 by Essam Khashoggi, chairman of Triad America.
- October 3: The subtitle Another Testament of Jesus Christ is added to the LDS Church's recently revised edition of the Book of Mormon.
- October 30: The Grandin Print Shop opens as an LDS historic site in Palmyra, New York.
- November 27: N. Eldon Tanner dies. Consequently, Marion G. Romney is named as First Counselor, and Gordon B. Hinckley is named as Second Counselor.
- December 31: The God Makers, an anti-Mormon film by Ed Decker, is premiered, finding screenings in evangelical Christian churches. Its popularity results in books and sequels, and impacts public perception of the LDS Church, although its claims and tone are strongly criticized, even by opponents of the church, for misrepresenting or defaming Mormonism.
- LDS Church membership surpasses five million.[68]
1983
1984
- January: Area Presidencies are filled by General Authorities,[69] [70] who begin to live on-site later in the year.[71]
- January 11: Mark E. Petersen dies.
- April: The genealogy software Personal Ancestral File is released by the LDS Church.
- April 4: The Museum of Church History and Art is dedicated, across from Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
- April 5: The RLDS Church votes to allow women to be ordained to the priesthood.[72] After a failed repeal attempt in 1986, some opponents separate into independent Restoration Branches.[73]
- April 7: Some new members of the First Quorum of the Seventy are only called for 5 years of service, the first general authorities without a lifetime appointment.
- April 12: Russell M. Nelson is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- May 3: Dallin H. Oaks is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- June: Carol Lynn Pearson's estranged gay husband returns to live with her and their children after being diagnosed with AIDS, and she cares for him until his death. Her 1986 memoir, Goodbye, I Love You, is considered a landmark in discussions of homosexuality and Mormonism.[74]
- July 12: Broadcast house of Triad Center opened.
- September: Sydney Australia Temple, the first in Australia; Manila Philippines Temple the first in the Philippines.
- November: Taipei Taiwan Temple, the first in a mainly Chinese speaking territory.
1985
- January 15: The novel Ender's Game is published by Orson Scott Card, an active LDS Church member. The novel won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1985,[75] and the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986,[76] considered the two most prestigious awards in science fiction.[77] [78] Ender's Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986.[79]
- January 17: An LDS Church-wide fast for African victims of famine raises $11 million.
- April: Peter Vidmar, olympic gymnast, speaks in the priesthood session of General Conference.[8]
- April 19: Bruce R. McConkie dies.
- April 28: The Salamander Letter is made public, describing folk magic in early Mormonism and causing much controversy.[80] Purporting to be an 1830 letter written by Martin Harris, it was later found to be a Mark Hofmann forgery.
- June 7: Groundbreaking for Triad 1 of the Triad Center. It is not finished, but it would have been the highest building in Utah.
- June 29: Freiberg Germany Temple opened in East Germany, the first and only temple behind the Iron Curtain, and the oldest in Germany.
- August 2: New hymnal is published.
- August 24: Johannesburg South Africa Temple is dedicated, the first temple in Africa. The country is still under apartheid at this time, creating controversy.
- October 10: M. Russell Ballard is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- October 15: Two Salt Lake City residents are killed by bombs laid by Mark Hofmann, a forger of Mormon historical documents, as a distraction to buy time as his debts mounted and schemes began to unravel.
- October 23: The Family History Library, near Temple Square in Salt Lake City, is dedicated.
- November 5: Spencer W. Kimball dies.
- November 10: Ezra Taft Benson becomes the 13th president of the LDS Church.
1986
- October: The general women's meeting is first held, and would continue on the Saturday before General Conference.[8]
- October 4: Stake quorums of Seventy are dissolved.
- October 9: Joseph B. Wirthlin is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- Arabic edition of Book of Mormon.
- Protests against BYU president in Jerusalem by Jewish groups, shouting slogans such as "Conversion is Murder!" and "Mormons, stop your mission now".
1987
1988
- May 15: A stake is created at Aba, Nigeria, the first in West Africa.
- May 20: Marion G. Romney, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dies.
- August: The 100 millionth proxy temple endowment for the dead is performed.
- October: The General Conference at this time marks the point at which women would be included as speakers in every General Conference going forward.[8]
- October 1: Richard G. Scott is sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- Hebrew edition of Book of Mormon, later withdrawn.
1989
1990s
1990
- March 31: Helvécio Martins becomes first black general authority.
- April 2: The release of FamilySearch software, which allows Family History Centers to access the church's genealogical resources on CD-ROM.[85]
- April: Wording of endowment and temple ceremony altered, and wording changed to remove penalty oaths.
- November 20: Costs are equalized for all missionaries, so all pay the same amount regardless of where they are serving, effective January 1, 1991.[86]
1991
- May 1: The 500,000th LDS missionary is called.
- May 31: LDS Church membership surpasses eight million.[87]
- June 8–29: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs through a tour of Eastern Europe and Russia, amidst the thaw in the Cold War, fostering goodwill and publicity just months before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[88]
- June 24: The LDS Church is granted formal recognition in Russia.
- December: The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is published. A joint production of BYU and Macmillan, it holds 1,500 entries from over 730 contributors.
- December 26: Collapse of the USSR, end of Cold War and start of CIS. Missionaries increase in the region.
1992
1993
- February 7: Howard W. Hunter is taken hostage while preparing to speak at a fireside in the Brigham Young University Marriott Center. Cody Judy rushed onto the rostrum and threatened Hunter and the audience of 15,000–17,000, claiming the briefcase he held contained a bomb. Judy demanded that Hunter read a document over the pulpit, which Hunter refused to do. The audience spontaneously sang We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet, during which students from the audience, and then security personnel, overtook Judy.
- April 25: The San Diego California Temple is dedicated.
- June 27: The Joseph Smith Memorial Building is dedicated near Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
- July 10: Steve Benson publicly states that his grandfather, church president Ezra Taft Benson, is suffering from senility, which is being concealed by church leadership.[90] Later that year, Steve Benson publicly leaves the church.
- September: The September Six are excommunicated. They include the feminist Lavina Fielding Anderson and historian D. Michael Quinn.
1994
1995
- March 3: Howard W. Hunter dies after serving only nine months as president.
- March 12: Gordon B. Hinckley becomes the 15th president of the LDS Church.
- April 6: Henry B. Eyring is ordained and set apart in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- April 1: The new office of Area Authority replaces regional representatives.
- May: Liahona magazine commences publication.
- September 23: "" is published.
- After a controversy, a deal is struck between the Jewish and LDS communities to "Remove from the International Genealogical Index in the future the names of all deceased Jews who are so identified if they are known to be improperly included counter to Church policy".[91]
1996
- January 18: General Authorities are no longer to serve on boards of directors for public or private corporations (with the exception of the church's Deseret Management Corporation).[92]
- February 25: More LDS members live outside the United States than inside it.[93]
- April 6: Gordon B. Hinckley announces plans for the LDS Conference Center.
- April 7: Gordon B. Hinckley is interviewed by Mike Wallace on the popular TV show 60 Minutes.[94]
- May 26: Hong Kong China Temple dedicated. It is the first "high rise" temple due to land shortages.
- May 27–28: Gordon B. Hinckley visits mainland China, the first LDS Church president to do so.
- June 29: Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the LDS Church, receives the Golden Plate Award from the Academy of Achievement.
- December 9: Launch of lds.org, the official LDS Church website.
- Indian Placement Program ends.
1997
- April 5: Area authorities are to be ordained Seventies and organized into regional Third, Fourth, and Fifth Quorums of Seventy.[95]
- June 1: The St. Louis Missouri Temple is dedicated and becomes the church's 50th operating temple.
- July 1: Hong Kong is transferred to the People's Republic of China. This makes the Hong Kong China Temple the first temple on PRC territory (although there are still heavy restrictions on the church in other parts of China). Due to the disintegration of East Germany, it is the only temple in a Communist run country.
- July 24: The sesquicentennial of the arrival of Mormon Pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley is celebrated, including an overland wagon train reenactment across the Mormon Trail,[96] [97] the opening of a new Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters, Nebraska,[98] conferences and celebrations throughout the church,[99] and a large scale media campaign by the church's Public Affairs Department.[100]
- August 11: Gladys Knight, the famous American soul singer, converts to the LDS Church.[101]
- October 4: New plan to build small temples in remote areas is announced by Gordon B. Hinckley in General Conference.[102]
- October 23: The film Orgazmo, a sex-comedy about an LDS missionary, gains theatrical release.
- November: Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR) founded
- November: LDS Church membership surpasses ten million.
- November 2: The Vernal Utah Temple is dedicated; it is the first temple to utilize a previously existing building.
1998
1999
See also
Sources
- Book: Beuys, Barbara . 1987 . Vergeßt uns nicht - Menschen im Widerstand 1933-1945 . Berlin . . 3498005111 . de .
Notes and References
- News: Michael De Groote . B. H. Roberts almost goes to Washington . Deseret News . September 14, 2010 . 2015-08-12.
- Book: . Japan . Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History . 2000 . Deseret Book.
- Book: Carolyn J. Rasmus . Temple Square . . Daniel H. Ludlow . Macmillan . 1992 . http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Temple_Square . 2015-05-12.
- Editor's Table: History of the Church . November 1902 . . 71–73 . 2015-08-12.
- For the publication date, see advertisements placed in the Deseret Evening News:
News: Ready Tomorrow . Deseret Evening News . 7 . September 19, 1902 . 2015-08-12.
News: Now Ready . Deseret Evening News . 12 . September 20, 1902 . 2015-08-12.
- Book: Kenneth W. Baldridge . Pearl of Great Price: Contents and Publication . . 1992 . Macmillan . http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Pearl_of_Great_Price . 2015-08-12.
- Book: Jennifer L. Lund . Joseph F. Smith and the Origins of the Church Historic Sites Program . Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times . 2013 . . 2015-08-12.
- News: When General Conference Was Canceled + Other Conference Firsts . Jannalee Sandau . October 2, 2018 . LDSLiving . 2019-01-16.
- Book: Gary James Bergera . The 1911 Evolution Controversy at Brigham Young University . Gene A. Sessions . Craig J. Oberg . The Search for Harmony: Essays on Science and Mormonism . 1993 . . 28–29 . 1-56085-020-5 . 2015-06-15.
- Book: Leonard Arrington . Davis Bitton . The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints . 1992 . 2nd . University of Illinois Press . 0252062361 . 2015-06-15.
- Book: . . . 1992 . Deseret Book . Consolidating for Growth, 1908-1918: Continuing Challenges to the Public Image.
- Book: Chapter Thirty-Six: The Church in the Early Twentieth Century . Church History in the Fulness of Times . 2003 . LDS Church . https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times/chapter-thirty-six?lang=eng . 2015-08-03.
- Web site: The Story of Scouting in the L.D.S. Church . L.D.S. Relationships, Boy Scouts of America . 2015-06-10.
- News: A Brief History of General Conference . Ryan Morgenegg . LDS Church News . October 3, 2014 . 2018-01-16.
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- Kristin McMurran . Carol Lynn Pearson Pens a Moving Memoir on Her Gay Husband's Death from Aids . . 27 . 5 . February 2, 1987 . 2015-07-13.
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