Mormonism in the 20th century

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

1900s

Willis C. Hawley (left) and Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed the House.

1900

• April 19 – Reed Smoot is ordained an apostle.

1901

• April 10: Daughters of Utah Pioneers founded.
• October 10: Lorenzo Snow dies, leaving Joseph F. Smith to lead the church.

1902

• Material in the Doctrine and Covenants which is duplicated in the Pearl of Great Price is removed.
• The Bureau of Information opens on Temple Square, the first visitors' center of the LDS Church.

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.
• 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.

1905

• April – John W. Taylor resigns from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles due to disagreements with church policy regarding polygamy.
• October 28 – Matthias F. Cowley follows John W. Taylor and resigns from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles due to disagreements with church policy regarding polygamy.

1906

• Turkish edition of Book of Mormon; first in an Asian language.

1907

• 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.
• The church becomes debt-free.

1909

• 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.
• Japanese translation of Book of Mormon, the first in an east Asian language.

1910s

Seagull Monument, Salt Lake City Temple Square. Assembly Hall in background.

1910

• April 14: Daughters of the Utah Handcart Pioneers founded.

1911

Publicity for A Victim of the Mormons. The film ushered in a number of anti-Mormon films that were frequently sensationalist and inaccurate.

• February 10: Three popular BYU professors appear before church leaders for teaching evolution. 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–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: The Salt Lake Tribune reports that photographs were taken of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple while undergoing renovation, and the photographers ask $100,000 from the church or they would be displayed publicly. Joseph F. Smith refuses to negotiate, and instead commissions James E. Talmage to publish a book from the church with its own pictures of the temple interior.
• 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.
• November 29: The M.I.A. Scouts are created as the first official LDS organization of the Boy Scouts of America.

1912

• September 30: James E. Talmage's The House of the Lord published. It is the first book to have official photographs of temple interiors.
• 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.
• Publication of Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey. It is his best known novel and played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre. However it contains unflattering portrayals and stereotyping of Mormon polygamists.

1913

• May 21: The Boy Scouts of America program is officially adopted for use in the LDS Church.
• October 1: Joseph F. Smith dedicates the Seagull Monument in the Temple Square of Salt Lake City, Utah.
• One Hundred Years of Mormonism premiers.

1915

• January: Relief Society Magazine is published for LDS women.
• October 25: The Life of Nephi, a church financed film, is released. It has since been lost.
• Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage published. It remains popular to this day.

1918

• October 4: Joseph F. Smith receives D&C 138 by revelation, concerning the afterlife and the ministry of Jesus Christ in that world during his three days death.
• 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, and Heber J. Grant leads the church.

1919

• November 27: Laie Hawaii Temple first outside continental United States, and thus also arguably first outside North America and first in Polynesia.

1920s

Arizona Temple

1920

• John Williamson, Sr. died.

1921

• Lectures on Faith removed from Standard Works.

1922

• February 7: Zions Securities founded.
• May 6: KSL radio goes on air.
• Trapped by the Mormons (also released as The Mormon Peril), a 1922 silent British anti-Mormon film directed by H. B. Parkinson, is released.

1923

• August 26: Cardston Alberta Temple, first outside United States, and first in another country.

1924

• January: Lorin C. Woolley excommunicated from the LDS Church in January 1924 for alleging that church president Heber J. Grant and apostle James E. Talmage had taken plural wives in the "recent past". Woolley claimed that he had learned of such behavior because he was employed by the United States Secret Service to spy on LDS Church leaders. The official reason for his excommunication was that he was "found guilty of pernicious falsehood." Grant publicly denied Woolley's claims in a general conference of the church in April 1931.

1925

• The First Presidency issues another official statement regarding questions concerning the Creation of the earth and the theories of evolution and the origin of man.

1926

• Institute of Religion ("Institute") founded in Moscow, Idaho adjacent to the University of Idaho.

1927

• Arizona Temple was dedicated.
• Good Neighbor Policy adopted. The reforms were primarily intended to remove from church literature, sermons, and ceremonies any explicit or implicit suggestion that Latter-day Saints should seek vengeance on the citizens or government of the United States for past persecutions of the church and its members, and in particular for the assassinations of church founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Hyrum.

1929

• July 15 – Using a single microphone for the speaker, organ, and choir, Music and the Spoken Word performs its first radio broadcast.
• Young Woman's Journal ceases publication.

1930s

Stage of the pageant on the Hill Cumorah

1930

• Juvenile Instructor replaced with The Instructor

1931

• LDS High School closed.

1933

• November 5: Washington D.C. chapel of the LDS Church is dedicated.
• Sons of Utah Pioneers founded.

1935

• Hill Cumorah Pageant established.

1936

• April 7: Church Welfare Program established.
• Braille edition of Book of Mormon.

1938

• Genealogical Society of Utah began to microfilm records which contained genealogical data from around the world, and today this microfilm makes up much of the library's collection. Genealogical Society of Utah is now more commonly known as FamilySearch, and is currently working on digitizing many of its microfilm collections to be shared online.

1939

• Portuguese translation of Book of Mormon.

1940s

Richard R. Lyman, the most recent apostle of the LDS Church to have been excommunicated.

1940

• September 27: Theatrical release of Brigham Young, a Hollywood biopic, featuring Dean Jagger as Brigham Young, and Vincent Price as Joseph Smith. Though the film is commercially unsuccessful, it brings Mormon history to a wider international audience.

1943

• LDS Church apostle Richard R. Lyman was discovered to be cohabitating with a woman other than his legal wife, in a relationship which 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.

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. George Albert Smith becomes the next president of the church.
• The publication of No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 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

• May: Fawn Brodie is excommunicated.
• May 22: Western Bad Bascomb released, about an outlaw who joins a Mormon wagon train.
• Tongan edition of Book of Mormon.

1947

• 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.
• Indian Placement Program initiated.
• LDS Church membership surpasses one million.

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.

1950s

1950

File:Deseret Ranches 7-12-2009 4-04-20 PM.JPG

This is the sign at the entrance to the Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch in Florida.

• August 8: George F. Richards, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dies.
• October 5: Delbert L. Stapley is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Deseret Ranches established.

1951

• April 4: George Albert Smith dies on his birthday. David O. McKay becomes president.
• October 11: Marion G. Romney is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• November 12: Paint Your Wagon by Lerner and Loewe becomes a hit on Broadway, but includes unflattering stereotypes of Mormon characters.

1952

• February 3: Joseph F. Merrill dies.
• April 6: LeGrand Richards is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• November 20: John A. Widtsoe dies.
• Construction of Church College of New Zealand began.

1953

File:Colorado City schoolhouse.JPG

The schoolhouse where the Short Creek raid took place.

• April 9: Adam S. Bennion is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• July 15: Albert E. Bowen dies.
• July 26: Short Creek raid, a mass arrest of polygamists at the Short Creek Community in the Arizona Strip. At the time it was described as "the largest mass arrest of men and women in modern American history."
• October 8: Richard L. Evans is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Independent Latter Day Saint congregations in Nigeria develop in response to ban on black priesthood.

1954

Leroy S. Johnson's fundamentalist Mormon followers would become the FLDS Church.

• March 29: Death of Joseph W. Musser, leader of the Council of Friends, and the Mormon fundamentalist community splits over succession. In the Short Creek Community, Leroy S. Johnson's followers would form the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church). In Salt Lake City, Rulon C. Allred's followers would form the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB).

1955

• September 11: Bern Switzerland Temple opened. The first temple outside North America, and in Europe.
• September 26: Church College of Hawaii established.

1958

• February 11: Adam S. Bennion dies after serving only five years.
• April 10: Hugh B. Brown is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• April 20: Hamilton New Zealand Temple opens the first in Oceania/Polynesia (excluding Hawaii)
• April 26: Church College of New Zealand founded.
• September: London England Temple, the first in UK opened.
• Mormon Doctrine by Bruce McConkie published.
• Priesthood opened up to black Melanesian males (Fijians, Papuans, Negritos etc.).

1959

• BYU Studies, a journal for LDS scholars, commences publication.

1960s

Entrance to The Polynesian Cultural Center.

1960

• Mormon Tabernacle Choir gains a Grammy for its recording of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

1961

• October 6: J. Reuben Clark dies.
• December 2: Gordon B. Hinckley is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1962

• April 23: George Q. Morris passes away.
• October 11: N. Eldon Tanner is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1963

• September 18: Henry D. Moyle dies.
• October 4: Thomas S. Monson is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• October: N. Eldon Tanner, after having been an apostle for only one year, is called as second counselor to David O. McKay in the First Presidency. He spends the rest of his life serving in the First Presidency.
• October 12: Polynesian Cultural Center founded.
• November 24: Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at funeral of John F. Kennedy.
• The Genealogical Society of Utah's microfilm collection is moved to the newly completed Granite Mountain Records Vault for long-term preservation.
• LDS Church membership surpasses two million.

1964

• 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.
• Centro Escolar Benemérito de las Américas established.
• Independent Latter Day Saint congregations in Ghana develop in response to ban on black priesthood.

1965

• 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.
• Establishment of Deseret Management Corporation
• Visitors' Center opens on Temple Square, starting a trend of modern public relations buildings.

1967

• Fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri, described as having been used in preparing the Book of Abraham, are identified in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections.

1968

• Brigham Young High School closes.

1969

• Upon hearing news of Billy Johnson's work in Ghana and others in Africa, David O. McKay petitions the Lord to lift the ban on blacks receiving the priesthood. He says that it is denied. It is not until 1978 that the ban is lifted.
• Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus established.

1970s

Millennial Star

1970

• January 18: David O. McKay dies and Joseph Fielding Smith becomes president.
• April 9: Boyd K. Packer is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• 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.
• 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

• January 14: Leonard Arrington is appointed Church Historian, inaugurating a "Camelot" period in the field of Mormon history.
• July 2: After serving for two years as president, Joseph Fielding Smith dies and Harold B. Lee becomes president.
• October 12: Bruce R. McConkie is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Aaronic Priesthood MIA Young Women established.
• Afrikaans edition of Book of Mormon, first in an African language.

1973

• December 26: After serving for little more than a year as president, Harold B. Lee dies. Spencer W. Kimball becomes president.
• 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.

1974

Washington D.C. Temple as seen from the Outer Loop of the Capital Beltway

• April 11: L. Tom Perry is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• July: The LDS Church implements a major reorganization, including standardized naming of missions and stakes.
• August: Love Me for a Reason by the Osmonds reaches No. 1 in the UK Singles Charts.
• September 1: The Church College of Hawaii is renamed Brigham Young University-Hawaii, as a satellite campus of BYU in Provo, Utah.
• November 19: Washington D.C. Temple is dedicated, in a prominent position along the Capital Beltway.
• Aaronic Priesthood MIA Young Women disbanded.

1975

• October 3: George P. Lee becomes first Native American general authority. He is excommunicated in the 1990s.
• November 7: Sunstone, an independent magazine about Mormon issues, is first published.
• November 11–12: Spencer W. Kimball rededicates the St. George Utah Temple after renovation.
• December 2: Hugh B. Brown dies.

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.
• 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

• 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

• 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)
• 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.
• 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 text released.
• LDS Church membership surpasses four million.

1979

• August 24-25: The first Sunstone Symposium is held.
• 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

• 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.
• October: Tokyo Japan Temple opens, the first in Asia, and in Japan.

1981

• 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.
• 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

• 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.
• 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. It's popularity results in books and sequels, impacting 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.

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 11: Mark E. Petersen dies.
• April 5: The RLDS Church votes to allow women to be ordained to the priesthood. After a failed repeal attempt in 1986, some opponents separate into independent Restoration Branches.
• 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.
• 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.
• Carol Lynn Pearson's estranged gay husband returned to live with her and their children after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, and she cared for him until his death. Her book Goodbye, I Love You is about their life together. It is considered a landmark in discussions about homosexuality and Mormonism, and Pearson remains an advocate of tolerance towards gay church members.

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.
• April 19: Bruce R. McConkie dies.
• 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 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 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

• Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs at the US Constitution's bicentennial celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
• Seagull Book book founded.

1988

• May 20: Marion G. Romney, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dies.
• October 1: Richard G. Scott is sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Hebrew edition of Book of Mormon, later withdrawn.

1989

• May 16: Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center dedicated.
• September 1: George P. Lee, the first Native American general authority is excommunicated. He is the most recent GA to have been excommunicated.
• LDS Church membership surpasses seven million.

1990s

1990

Helvécio Martins

• April: Wording of endowment and temple ceremony altered, and wording changed to remove penalty oaths.
• Helvécio Martins becomes first black general authority.

1991

• May 31: LDS Church membership surpasses eight million.
• 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.
• 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

• 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.

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.
• 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. 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

• 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.
• Audio and internet versions of Book of Mormon launched.

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 1: 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: "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" 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."

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).
• 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 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

Vernal Utah Temple

• April 5: Area authorities are to be ordained to Seventies and be organized into regional Third, Fourth, and Fifth Quorums of Seventy.
• 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 22: The Mormon Trail Wagon Train arrives in Salt Lake City, a historical reenactment across the Mormon Trail, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Mormon pioneers' overland journey to Utah, which is observed July 24.
• August 11: Gladys Knight, the famous American soul singer, converts is to the LDS Church.
• October 4: New plan to build small temples in remote areas, as 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.
• November 2: The Vernal Utah Temple is dedicated; it is the first temple to utilize a previously existing building.

1998

• January 4: New curriculum for Teachings of Presidents of the Church is used for Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes, beginning with Brigham Young.
• March 26-27: The Grandin Print Shop and rebuilt Smith Family Farm replica are dedicated in Palmyra, New York.
• April 5: 30 new small temples are announced by Gordon B. Hinckley at General Conference, for a total of 100 by the end of 2000.
• April 26: Gordon B. Hinckley addresses 20,000 church members gathered at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• July 20: Plans for Kyiv (Kiev) Ukraine Temple announced, the first in the former Soviet Union.
• July 26-27: The Monticello Utah Temple is dedicated, the first temple using the new smaller design announced in 1997.
• September 8: Gordon B. Hinckley is interviewed on the popular TV show Larry King Live.

1999

The Salt Lake City Tornado of 1999 rips through downtown

• January 14: 24-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 16: Orchestra at Temple Square holds first rehearsal.
• November 26: American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, a documentary film, is broadcast on PBS.
• December 31: Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution sold.

See also

• Mormonism in the 19th century
• Mormonism in the 21st century

Sources

• Bitton, Davis; Alexander, Thomas G. (2009), The A to Z of Mormonism, Scarecrow Press