Mormonism in the 20th century

This is a timeline of major events in Mormonism in the 20th century.

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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.
April 19: Reed Smoot is ordained an apostle.

1901

thumb|right|160px|[[Joseph F. Smith became LDS Church president.]]

April 10: The Daughters of Utah Pioneers organization is founded.
September 1: Japan is dedicated by Heber J. Grant for missionary proselyting.
October 10: Lorenzo Snow dies.
October 17: Joseph F. Smith becomes the sixth president of the LDS Church.

1902

January: The first issue of The Children's Friend is published, a magazine for LDS primary children.
September 20: The first volume of the History of the Church is published, edited by B. H. Roberts and covering Joseph Smith's life from 1805 to 1833.
October: A new edition of the Pearl of Great Price is approved, as prepared by James E. Talmage, who introduced chapters and verses and removed material duplicated in the Doctrine and Covenants.

1903

thumb|right|[[Brigham Young Academy building]]

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.

1905

January 1: Latter-day Saint Hospital is opened.

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. After becoming a public controversy, the professors resign later that year. Historian Leonard Arrington called this Mormonism's "first brush with modernism".
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.
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.

1912

Summer: Mormon colonies in Mexico are evacuated due to anti-American sentiment during the Mexican Revolution, and many of their citizens leave for the United States and never return. Some colonists did eventually return, but today only Colonia Juárez and Colonia Dublan in the Casas Grandes river valley remain active.
September 30: James E. Talmage's The House of the Lord published. It is the first book to have official photographs of temple interiors.
September: The first LDS seminary opens with religious classes for students from Granite High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
April 27: Home Evening program is introduced, calling for families to study the gospel together at home.
October 4: Joseph F. Smith announces at General Conference his revelation about the ministry to those in the afterlife, now known as Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
October 31: The Quorum of the Twelve and the Patriarch of the Church unanimously accept Smith's revelation as official church canon.
November 19: Joseph F. Smith passes away.
November 23: Heber J. Grant becomes the seventh president of the LDS Church.

1919

April: General Conference is postponed to June because of the Spanish flu epidemic.
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. As the most widely traveled general authority, McKay retains a vision for worldwide church growth.
The LDS Church closes its system of academies.

1922

February 7: Zions Securities founded.
May 6: KZN radio (later KSL) goes on air in Salt Lake City, with LDS Church involvement, Wooly later founded the polygamous Mormon fundamentalism movement.
April: A microphone is first used in General Conference, allowing overflow attendees to hear the proceedings in another building on Temple Square.

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.
February 3: The Salt Lake Mission Home is dedicated, for use in training of LDS missionaries before they depart for their assignments.
December 25: South America is dedicated for missionary proselyting, by LDS Apostle Melvin J. Ballard in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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.
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.

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.
August 14: Deseret Industries is started.
Tongan edition of Book of Mormon.

1947

February 26: Matthew Cowley embarks on a tour of the Pacific islands, to reestablish missionary work after World War II.
July 24: Centennial celebration of the Mormon pioneers' arrival in Utah. A caravan of automobiles with covered wagon tops travels from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City. LDS Church president George Albert Smith dedicates This is the Place Monument.

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. which became a best-selling Mormon book and was translated into many languages.
Deseret Ranches established.

1951

April 4: George Albert Smith dies on his birthday.
April 9: David O. McKay becomes church president.
October 6: J. Reuben Clark dies.
December 2: Gordon B. Hinckley is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
December 3: The first Spanish-speaking stake of the LDS Church is created, in Mexico City.

1962

March: The age entrance requirement for male LDS missionaries is lowered from 20 to 19 years old.
January: Priesthood Executive Committees and Correlation Councils are launched at the ward level.
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.
November 17: The Oakland Temple is dedicated in California.
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, all who cannot hold priesthood in the church until the revelation received in 1978.
Independent Latter Day Saint congregations in Ghana develop in response to ban on black priesthood.

1965

February: LDS missionaries are allowed into Italy, for the first time since 1862.
Chinese language edition of Book of Mormon, retranslated 2007.

1966

March: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the oldest independent journal in Mormon Studies, is established.
May 1: The first stake in South America is created in São Paulo, Brazil. starting a trend of modern public relations buildings.

1967

September 29: The position of Regional representative of the Twelve is created,
November 27: Fragments of the recently rediscovered Joseph Smith Papyri, described as having been used in preparing the Book of Abraham, are given to the LDS Church by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The first color television broadcast of General Conference.
Brigham Young High School closes.

1969

January 3: LDS missionaries called to non-English-speaking service will first study for two months at the Language Training Mission.
Improvement Era, Millennial Star cease publication.

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. 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. At the same time, the Church Historian's Office is modernized into the Church Historical Department.
June 3: The Public Communications Department is created, initially called the External Communications Department, to address public relations. It would become the Public Affairs Department in 1991.
July 2: After serving for two years as president, Joseph Fielding Smith dies.
July 7: Harold B. Lee becomes the 11th president of the LDS Church.
Fall: LDS Sunday School adult classes begin using the scriptures for curriculum, instead of separate manuals on gospel themes.

1973

February: Agricultural missionary work is introduced in South America.
October 3: Stake seventies quorums are combined with stake missionary leadership.
November 11–12: Spencer W. Kimball rededicates the St. George Utah Temple after renovation.
December 2: Hugh B. Brown dies.
Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists (AMCAP) is founded.

1976

January 8: David B. Haight is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
January 23: First airing of Donny & Marie show on American TV.
April 1: Western The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox released starring Goldie Hawn and George Segal. The storyline involves the main characters seek refuge from outlaws by joining a wagon train of Mormons.
April 3: Two revelations are added to the LDS scriptural canon (in the Pearl of Great Price), one of Joseph Smith and one of Joseph F. Smith. In 1981 they became Doctrine and Covenants sections 137 and 138.
June 26: The Mormon Extermination Order from 1844 is officially rescinded by Missouri Governor Christopher S. Bond.
July 4: Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at the United States Bicentennial.

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.
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.
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.

1979

February 18: The 1000th stake of the LDS Church is created at Nauvoo, Illinois.
September 9: New LDS edition of the Bible issued, with cross-references to other LDS scriptures.
October 6: Eldred G. Smith is made Patriarch Emeritus. The office of Patriarch to the Church remains unfilled due to the availability of local patriarchs.
October 24: Spencer W. Kimball visits Jerusalem and dedicates Orson Hyde Memorial Garden.
The leading apologetic organisation Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) is founded.

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.
May 3: The discovery of the original Anthon Transcript is reported in the Church News. 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.
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.
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.
October 30: The Grandin Print Shop opens as an LDS historic site in Palmyra, New York.

1983

January 11: LeGrand Richards dies.
México City México Temple opens, the first in Mexico, and Central America.
August 5 Apia Samoa Temple opens, the first in the smaller Pacific island groups.
Q'eqchi' (Quiche) translation of the Book of Mormon. The first in an Amerindian language.

1984

January: Area Presidencies are filled by General Authorities, who begin to live on-site later in the year.
January 11: Mark E. Petersen dies.
April: The genealogy software Personal Ancestral File is released by the LDS Church. After a failed repeal attempt in 1986, some opponents separate into independent Restoration Branches.
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.
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, and the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986, considered the two most prestigious awards in science fiction. Ender's Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986.
January 17: An LDS Church-wide fast for African victims of famine raises $11 million. 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.
Seagull Book book founded.

1988

May 15: A stake is created at Aba, Nigeria, the first in West Africa. its members being term-limited to 3–5 years.
May 16: Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center dedicated.
May 24: A terrorist organization, Zarate Willka Armed Forces of Liberation, assassinates two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they return to their apartment.
September 1: George P. Lee, the first Native American general authority is excommunicated.
November 25: Announcement that local ward and stake budgets will be funded by general Church funds, from tithing, and will no longer have assessments.
LDS Church membership surpasses seven million.

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.
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.

1991

May 1: The 500,000th LDS missionary is called.
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.
June 24: The LDS Church is granted formal recognition in Russia. At this meeting, the Gospel Literacy Effort is announced, which endorsed UNESCO's International Literacy Day.
October 3: Gordon B. Hinckley announces Harrison New York Temple. Construction never started and all efforts for this project were eventually suspended; it was removed from the list on the LDS Church's official temple website soon after the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple.
December 26-January 6: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs for a tour of Israel. 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

right|thumb|120px|[[Howard W. Hunter becomes President of the Church.]]

February 25: Marvin J. Ashton dies.
April 7: Robert D. Hales is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
May 3: True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days founded in response to a perceived apostasy in the LDS Church. As with many Mormon fundamentalist groups, they object to what they perceive as unauthorized changes to church doctrine and practices.
May 30: Ezra Taft Benson dies.
June 5: Howard W. Hunter becomes the 14th president of the LDS Church.
June 23: Jeffrey R. Holland is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
December 11: The 2000th stake of the LDS Church is organized in Mexico City.

1996

right|thumb|150px|The [[Hong Kong China Temple is dedicated.]]

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).
February 25: More LDS members live outside the United States than inside it.
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.
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 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, the opening of a new Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, conferences and celebrations throughout the church, and a large scale media campaign by the church's Public Affairs Department.
August 11: Gladys Knight, the famous American soul singer, converts to the LDS Church.
October 4: New plan to build small temples in remote areas is announced by Gordon B. Hinckley in General Conference.
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.
March 26–27: The Grandin Print Shop and rebuilt Smith Family Farm replica are dedicated in Palmyra, New York.
April 26: Gordon B. Hinckley addresses 20,000 church members gathered at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1999

January 14: Twenty-four-year-old De-Kieu Duy entered the Triad Center's broadcast house for KSL-TV and began shooting, killing one.
April 4: The rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple is announced by Gordon B. Hinckley at General Conference.
April 15: A second Salt Lake City shooting incident kills two, this time at the LDS Church's Family History Library, a block away from the January shooting. The Triad Center is also evacuated due to a suspicious note in a nearby truck, later found to be unrelated.
May 22: Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus holds its last concert.
May 24: FamilySearch.org website is launched, providing access to genealogical information.
August 11: A tornado damages SLC historic sites, delays work on LDS Conference Center and narrowly misses the Salt Lake Temple. It occurred during an unusually strong summer monsoon season. It was the second tornado to hit in Utah that resulted in a fatality (the other occurring in 1884).
October: The first live broadcast of General Conference on the internet.
November 26: American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, a documentary film, is broadcast on PBS.