Presidents of the Church

“Presidents of the Church Time Line,” Presidents of the Church Student Manual (2004), 281–96


Joseph Smith Sr. Home

Joseph Smith Sr. Home, Manchester, New York

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Church History

  • Joseph Smith (23 Dec. 1805–27 June 1844)

  • Brigham Young (1 June 1801–29 Aug. 1877)

  • John Taylor (1 Nov. 1808–25 July 1887)

  • Wilford Woodruff (1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept 1898)

  • Hyrum Smith born (9 Feb.)

  • Joseph Smith Sr. moved his family to Sharon, Vermont

  • David Whitmer born (7 Jan.)

  • Oliver Cowdery born (3 Oct.)

  • Joseph Smith had leg operation

  • Joseph Smith

  • Brigham Young

  • John Taylor

  • Wilford Woodruff

  • Lorenzo Snow (3 Apr. 1814–10 Oct. 1901)

  • Smith family moved to Palmyra, New York, due to three successive crop failures in Vermont

  • Smith family moved to Manchester, New York

  • Joseph Smith had the First Vision (spring)

  • Angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith three times during one night and twice the next day (21–22 Sept.)

  • Joseph Smith first visited the Hill Cumorah and viewed the golden plates

  • Alvin Smith died (19 Nov.)

  • Joseph Smith made second visit to Hill Cumorah to receive instruction

  • Joseph Smith made third visit to Hill Cumorah for instruction

  • Joseph Smith made fourth visit to Hill Cumorah for instruction

  • Joseph Smith and Emma Hale married (18 Jan.)

  • Joseph Smith obtained the golden plates (22 Sept.; see Isaih 29:11–12)

  • Martin Harris visited Charles Anthon in New York City (Feb.)

  • Martin Harris lost 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon (June)

  • Joseph Smith regained the gift to translate the Book of Mormon (Sept.)

  • Aaronic Priesthood restored (15 May); the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored about two weeks later, probably the end of May; Joseph Smith was ordained an Apostle by Peter, James, and John (see D&C 20:2; 27:12; 128:20)

  • Book of Mormon translation completed; the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses were shown the golden plates

  • Joseph Smith (sustained as First Elder of the Church 6 Apr. 1830)

  • Brigham Young

    (ordained Apostle 14 Feb. 1835)

  • John Taylor

    (ordained Apostle 19 Dec. 1838)

  • Wilford Woodruff

    (ordained Apostle 26 Apr. 1839)

  • Lorenzo Snow

  • Joseph F. Smith (13 Nov. 1838–19 Nov. 1918)

  • Book of Mormon published

  • The Church was organized (6 Apr.)

  • Church members began gathering to Ohio

  • Some Church members moved to Missouri

  • Joseph Smith sustained as President of the High Priesthood (25 Jan.)

  • Vision of the three degrees of glory (D&C 76) received (16 Feb.)

  • “Prophecy on War” (D&C 87; 25Dec.) and “Olive Leaf” (D&C 88: 27–28Dec, 3 Jan.) received

  • The Word of Wisdom (D&C 89) received (27 Feb.)

  • Book of Commandments published

  • Brigham Young baptized (14 Apr.)

  • First Presidency organized (18 Mar.)

  • Wilford Woodruff baptized (31 Dec.)

  • First stake organized

  • Zion’s Camp (May–July)

  • Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Quorum of the Seventy organized (Feb.)

  • Mummies and scrolls purchased from Michael Chandler (July)

  • Doctrine and Covenants approved (17 Aug.)

  • Kirtland Temple dedicated (27 Mar); first temple built in this dispensation

  • Moses, Elias, and Elijah committed priesthood keys to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (3 Apr.)

  • John Taylor baptized (9 May)

  • Lorenzo Snow baptized (19 June)

  • Church hymnal published (Nov.)

  • First mission in the Church organized in Great Britian

  • Joseph Smith received revelation on tithing (8 July)

  • Governor Boggs issued “Extermination Order” in Missouri (27 Oct.)

  • Haun’s Mill massacre (30 Oct.)

  • Joseph and Hyrum Smith imprisoned in Liberty Jail (Dec. 1838–Apr. 1839)

  • Church members moved to Illinois and Iowa

  • First Church members to gather from a foreign land sailed from England

  • Joseph Smith began teaching baptism for the dead (15 Aug.)

  • Orson Hyde dedicated the Holy Land for the return of the Jews (24 Oct.)

  • First full endowment given (4 May)

  • Wentworth Letter written (spring)

  • Book of Abraham published

  • Relief Society organized (17 Mar.)

  • Revelation on the new and everlasting covenant, marriage, and fullness of life (D&C 132; recorded on 12 July)

  • Joseph and Hyrum Smith martyred in Carthage, Illinois (27 June)

  • The Twelve Apostles sustained as the presiding quorum in the Church (8 Aug.)

  • Church membership: approximately 280 at end of year

  • 16,865

  • Brigham Young

  • (President of the Church, 27 Dec. 1847)

  • John Taylor

  • Wilford Woodruff

  • Lorenzo Snow

    (ordained Apostle 12 Feb. 1849)

  • Joseph F. Smith

  • Heber J. Grant (22 Nov. 1856–14 May 1945)

  • Church leaders announced plans to move to the West (Oct.)

  • Saints began leaving Nauvoo (Feb.)

  • Nauvoo Temple dedicated (1 May)

  • Brigham Young’s Pioneer Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley (22–24 July)

  • Mormon Battalion began its 2000-mile march from Kanesville, Iowa (21 July)

  • Members of Mormon Battalion discharged at Los Angeles, California (16 July)

  • Brigham Young became 2nd President of the Church, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as counselors (27 Dec.)

  • Miracle of seagulls saved crops

  • Utah became a U.S. territory; Brigham Young appointed its first governor (Sept.)

  • Doctrine of plural marriage first publicly announced (28–29 Aug.)

  • Pearl of Great Price published in Liverpool, England

  • Perpetual Emigrating Fund established (Oct.)

  • Sunday School organized (9 Dec.)

  • Four cornerstones of the Salt lake Temple laid (6 Apr.)

  • Fast day held the first Thursday of each month

  • Brigham Young and Saints learned of Utah Expedition (24 July); Utah War (to 1858)

  • Johnston’s Army passed through Salt Lake City (26 June)

  • Pioneer handcart companies began (June); Willie and Martin companies rescued (Oct.–Nov.)

  • 51,839

  • Brigham Young

  • John Taylor

  • Wilford Woodruff

  • Lorenzo Snow

  • Joseph F. Smith

    (ordained Apostle 1 July 1866)

  • Heber J. Grant

  • George Albert Smith (4 Apr. 1870–4 Apr. 1951)

  • Handcart era ended (last company arrived in Salt Lake in Aug.)

  • Brigham Young arrested on charge of bigamy (10 Mar.); never brought to trial

  • Church began use of wagon trains that left Salt Lake Valley in the spring with provisions for yearly immigration and returned in the fall with immigrants; used until 1868 (railroad came in 1869)

  • Salt Lake Theatre was dedicated (6 Mar.)

  • US Congress passed Morrill Act, outlawing plural marriage in US territories (8 July)

  • Black Hawk War began in central Utah (9 Apr.; ended 1867)

  • Settlers in many parts of Utah battled with Indians

  • First general conference held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle (6 Oct.)

  • Last organized “Church train” arrived in Salt Lake Valley

  • Church-owned Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) opened for business (spring)

  • President Brigham Young organized the Young Ladies’ Retrenchment Association (28 Nov.; later renamed the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Organization)

  • Utah became one of first US states or territories to grant women the right to vote (12 Feb.)

  • Location for the St. George Temple dedicated (Nov.)

  • United order movement launched (Feb.); over 200 united orders established in Latter-day Saint settlements by the end of the year

  • President Young called six additional counselors in the First Presidency

  • Church membership: 61,082

  • 90,130

  • Brigham Young

  • John Taylor

    (President of the Church, 10 Oct. 1880)

  • Wilford Woodruff

  • Lorenzo Snow

  • Joseph F. Smith

  • Heber J. Grant

    (ordained Apostle 16 Oct. 1882)

  • George Albert Smith

  • David O. McKay (8 Sept. 1873–18 Jan. 1970)

  • Joseph Fielding Smith (19 July 1876–2 July 1972)

  • First Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association organized (10 June)

  • Salt Lake Tabernacle dedicated (Oct.); President John Taylor, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, read the dedicatory prayer

  • Brigham Young Academy founded in Provo, Utah (16 Oct.); became Brigham Young University in 1903

  • Missionary work launched in New Mexico

  • St. George Temple dedicated (6 Apr.); first temple since the Church moved west

  • President Brigham Young died (29 Aug.)

  • Primary founded; first meeting at Farmington, Utah (25 Aug.)

  • Jubilee year celebration inaugurated (6 Apr.), reminiscent of Old Testament practice (see Leviticus 25)

  • Assembly Hall on Temple Square dedicated (8 Jan.)

  • John Taylor became 3rd President of the church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors (10 Oct.)

  • Pearl of Great Price accepted as a standard work of the Church (10 Oct.)

  • First permanent branch of the Church among the Maoris organized in New Zealand (26 Aug.)

  • Extensive prosecution of church members practicing polygamy continued under the Edmunds Law; President John Taylor and other Church leaders went into hiding

  • Church colonies in Mexico established

  • Hundreds of Church members imprisoned for the practice of polygamy

  • Logan Temple dedicated (17 May); second temple since the Church moved west

  • Church disincorporated and property confiscated due to prosecution under the Edmunds-Tucker Act

  • President John Taylor died while in “exile” (25 July)

  • Manti Temple dedicated (17, 21 May); third temple since the church moved west

  • Church settlements in Canada began

  • Wilford Woodruff became 4th President of the Church with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors (7 Apr.)

  • Missionary work began in Samoa

  • 133,628

  • Wilford Woodruff (President of the Church, 7 Apr. 1889)

  • Lorenzo Snow

    (President of the Church, 13 Sept. 1898

  • Joseph F. Smith

    (President of the Church, 17 Oct. 1901

  • Heber J. Grant

  • George Albert Smith

  • David O. McKay

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

  • Harold B. Lee (28 Mar. 1899–26 Dec. 1973)

  • Spencer W. Kimball (28 Mar. 1895–5 Nov. 1985)

  • Ezra Taft Benson (4 Aug. 1899–30 May 1994)

  • “Manifesto” issued (24 Sept.); unanimously accepted by vote in general conference (6 Oct.; see Official Declaration 1)

  • First Presidency sent letter directing that a week-day religious education program be established in every ward where there was no Church school (25 Oct.)

  • Brigham Young Academy building dedicated in Provo, Utah (4 Jan.)

  • Proclamation of amnesty for polygamists issued by US President Benjamin Harrison (4 Jan.)

  • Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Relief Society

  • Salt Lake Temple dedicated (6 Apr.); fourth temple since the Church moved west

  • Congressional resolution signed for return of Church’s personal property (25 Oct.); 3 years later (28 Mar. 1896) a memorial was passed providing for restoration of Church’s real estate

  • Genealogical Society of Utah organized (13 Nov.)

  • Utah state constitution ratified and statehood approved (5 Nov.)

  • Utah became a state (4 Jan.)

  • First stake outside the US created in Cardston, Alberta, Canada (9 June)

  • Fast day changed from Thursday to Sunday (5 Nov.)

  • President Wilford Woodruff died (2 Sept.); Lorenzo Snow became 5th President of the Church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors (13 Sept.)

  • Revelation emphasizing tithing received by President Snow (17 May)

  • First single, official, proselyting female missionaries set apart (spring)

  • Fiftieth anniversary of the Saints’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley celebrated (24 July)

  • Improvement Era began publication (Nov.)

  • President Snow reaffirmed Church’s ban on plural marriage (8 Jan.)

  • Mission opened in Japan (12 Aug.)

  • President Lorenzo Snow died (10 Oct.); Joseph F. Smith became 6th President of the Church, with John R. Winder and Anthon H. Lund as counselors (17 Oct.)

  • Children’s Friend first published (Jan.)

  • President Smith issued second manifesto (6 Apr.)

  • Brigham Young Academy became Brigham Young University (Oct.)

  • Church purchased Carthage Jail (5 Nov.)

  • Church membership: 188,263

  • 283,765

  • Joseph F. Smith

  • Heber J. Grant

  • George Albert Smith (ordained Apostle 8 Oct. 1903)

  • David O. McKay (ordained Apostle 9 Apr. 1906)

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

    (ordained Apostle 7 Apr. 1910)

  • Harold B. Lee

  • Spencer W. Kimball

  • Ezra Taft Benson

  • Howard W. Hunter (14 Nov. 1907–3 Mar. 1995)

  • Gordon B. Hinckley (23 June 1910)

  • Dr. William H. Groves Latter-day Saints Hospital, first in Church hospital system, opened in Salt Lake City (1 Jan.); Church turned its hospitals over to private organization in 1975

  • Joseph Smith Memorial Cottage and Monument, in Sharon, Vermont, site of the Prophet’s birth, dedicated (23 Dec.)

  • President Smith announced that the Church was free of debt (10 Jan.)

  • President Joseph F. Smith became the first Church President to visit Europe (summer)

  • Church purchased Smith farm near Palmyra, New York, including the Sacred Grove

  • Priesthood programs and other organizations systematized (8 Apr.)

  • Responding to debate of Darwinism and evolution, First Presidency issued official statement on origin of man (Nov.)

  • Church adopted Boy Scout program

  • Boy Scout program officially adopted as activity program for boys of the Church (21 May)

  • Seagull Monument on Temple Square dedicated (1 Oct.)

  • First seminary organized at Granite High School in Salt Lake City (Sept.)

  • Correlation Committee created (8 Nov.)

  • Ricks Academy, in Rexburg, Idaho, became Ricks College (fall)

  • First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve issued Doctrinal exposition on the Father and the Son (30 June)

  • Relief Society Magazine began monthly publication (Jan.)

  • Elder James E. Talmage’s book Jesus the Christ published (Sept.)

  • First Presidency inaugurated “Home Evening” program (27 Apr.)

  • President Smith received vision of the redemption of the dead (3 Oct.; see D&C 138)

  • President Joseph F. Smith died (19 Nov.); Heber J. Grant became 7th President of the Church, with Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose as counselors (23 Nov.)

  • April general conference postponed to June 1–3 due to nationwide influenza epidemic

  • Church Administration Building completed in Salt Lake City (2 Oct.)

  • Laie Hawaii Temple, first out of contiguous US, dedicated (27 Nov.)

  • 398,478

  • Heber J. Grant (President of the Church, 23 Nov. 1918)

  • George Albert Smith

  • David O. McKay

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

  • Harold B. Lee

  • Spencer W. Kimball

  • Ezra Taft Benson

  • Howard W. Hunter

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

  • Elder David O. McKay and Hugh J. Cannon leave on 55,896-mile world survey of Church missions (4 Dec.; returned 24 Dec. 1921)

  • Primary children’s Hospital opened in Salt Lake City (May)

  • President Heber J. Grant dedicated Deseret News radio station and, for the first time in the Church’s history, delivered a message over the airways (6 May)

  • Church purchased part of the Hill Cumorah

  • Cardston Alberta Temple dedicated in Canada (26 Aug.)

  • First radio broadcast of general conference (3 Oct.)

  • First mission in South America established (6 Dec.)

  • Mission home in Salt Lake City; first organized training for missionaries

  • First institute of religion began in Moscow, Idaho, at University of Idaho (fall)

  • Mesa Arizona Temple dedicated (23 Oct); dedicatory services broadcast by radio

  • Church purchased the rest of the Hill Cumorah

  • 100th stake organized, in Lehi, Utah (1 July)

  • Tabernacle Choir began weekly network radio broadcasts (15 July)

  • Church observed the centennial of its organization (6 Apr.)

  • Church News first published by Church’s Deseret News(6 Apr.)

  • Church began a campaign against the use of tobacco (2 Apr.)

  • Special fast day called during the Great Depression to help the poor (15 May)

  • Church held a six-day commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the Word of Wisdom revelation (21–26 Feb)

  • Junior Sunday School became official part of Sunday School organization

  • Church membership: 525,987

  • 670,017

  • Heber J. Grant

  • George Albert Smith

  • (President of the Church, 21 May 1945)

  • David O. McKay

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

  • Harold B. Lee

  • (ordained Apostle 10 Apr. 1941)

  • Spencer W. Kimball

  • (ordained Apostle 7 Oct. 1943)

  • Ezra Taft Benson

  • (ordained Apostle 7 Oct. 1943)

  • Howard W. Hunter

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

  • Hill Cumorah Monument dedicated (21 July)

  • Church introduced its formal welfare program, the Church Security Program (Apr.); later renamed the Church Welfare Program (1938)

  • Hill Cumorah pageant, “America’s Witness for Christ,” began (July)

  • Church purchased portion of Nauvoo Temple lot (20 Feb.)

  • Church members counseled to store a year’s supply of food (Apr.)

  • Genealogical Society of Utah began microfilming records (Nov.)

  • First Deseret Industries store opened, in Salt Lake City (14 Aug.)

  • Church purchased Liberty Jail in Missouri (19 June)

  • First Presidency recalled all missionaries from Europe (Aug.–Nov.)

  • First Presidency recalled all missionaries from South Pacific and South Africa

  • First Presidency announced new positions of Assistants to the Twelve (6 Apr.)

  • Church members urged to restrict travel to comply with wartime restrictions

  • USS Joseph Smith, a Liberty class ship, was launched (22 May)

  • USS Brigham Young, a Liberty class ship (to carry cargo), was christened (17 Aug.)

  • Church announced purchase of Spring Hill in Missouri, (Adam-ondi-Ahman; Mar.)

  • Memorial Services held to commemorate 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum (June)

  • President Heber J. Grant died (14 May); George Albert Smith became 8th President of the Church, with J. Reuben Clark Jr. and David O. McKay as counselors (21 May)

  • For the first time since 1942, general church membership invited to attend general conference (5-7 Oct.)

  • Church began sending supplies to war-torn Europe (Jan.)

  • Church membership passed one million

  • Church celebrated 100th anniversary of Pioneers’ arrival in Salt Lake Valley (24 July)

  • The Welfare Program declared a program of the Church (5 Apr.)

  • The Tabernacle Choir performed its 1,000th nationally broadcast radio program (17 Oct)

  • Public telecast of general conference began (Oct.)

  • 862,664

  • George Albert Smith

  • David O. McKay (President of the Church, 9 Apr. 1951)

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

  • Harold B. Lee

  • Spencer W. Kimball

  • Ezra Taft Benson

  • Howard W. Hunter

    (ordained Apostle 15 Oct. 1959)

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

    (ordained Apostle 5 Oct. 1961)

  • First early morning seminary started in Southern California (Sept.)

  • President George Albert Smith dedicated statue of Brigham Young at US Capital (1 June)

  • President George Albert Smith died (4 Apr.); David O. McKay became 9th President of the Church, with Stephen L. Richards and J. Reuben Clark Jr. as counselors (9 Apr.)

  • Missionaries began using the Systematic Program for Teaching the Gospel, inaugurating use of a standard plan for missionary work throughout the Church

  • Elder Ezra Taft Benson chosen as Secretary of Agriculture by newly elected US President Dwight D. Eisenhower (31 Dec.); Elder Benson served for eight years

  • Church organized its United Church School System (9 July)

  • Church Building Committee organized (July)

  • Church announced inauguration of Indian Placement Program (July)

  • Bern Switzerland Temple (first in Europe) dedicated (11 Sept.)

  • Tabernacle Choir made major concert tour of Europe (Aug.–Sept.)

  • Church College of Hawaii (now BYU–Hawaii) opened (26 Sept.)

  • Relief Society Building in Salt Lake City dedicated (3 Oct.)

  • Semi-annual general conference cancelled because of flu epidemic (Oct.)

  • Hamilton New Zealand and London England Temples dedicated (20 Apr.; 7 Sept.)

  • First Presidency issued statement admonishing Church members to keep the Sabbath day holy and avoid shopping on Sundays (19 June)

  • Tabernacle Choir awarded a Grammy, a national music award, for its recording of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (29 Nov.)

  • President McKay issued statement “Every member a missionary” (6 Apr.)

  • First stake in England organized in Manchester (27 Mar.)

  • First non-English speaking stake created in The Hague in The Netherlands (12 Mar.)

  • Age young men eligible for full-time missions lowered from 20 to 19 (Mar.)

  • Language Training Institute for missionaries called to foreign countries established at BYU (Nov.); later became Language Training Mission (1963)

  • Church purchased shortwave radio station (10 Oct.); subsequently used to transmit Church broadcasts to Europe and South America

  • Polynesian Cultural Center dedicated in Hawaii (12 Oct.)

  • Home teaching program inaugurated (Jan.)

  • Church hosted pavilion at the New York World’s Fair (Apr.)

  • Church Membership: 1,111,314

  • 1,693,180

  • David O. McKay

  • Joseph Fielding Smith

    (President of the Church, 23 Jan. 1970)

  • Harold B. Lee

    (President of the Church, 7 July 1972)

  • Spencer W. Kimball

    (President of the Church, 30 Dec. 1973)

  • Ezra Taft Benson

  • Howard W. Hunter

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

  • Church first published a family home evening manual (Jan.)

  • Stopped in 1862, missionary work resumed in Italy (Feb.)

  • First stake in South America organized in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1 May)

  • Granite Mountain Records Vault dedicated (22 June)

  • Two additional counselors, Joseph Fielding Smith and Thorpe B. Isaacson, were called to the First Presidency (Oct.); Alvin R. Dyer called to be third additional counselor in April 1968

  • First Regional Representatives called (29 Sept.)

  • Missionary work began in Thailand (Feb.)

  • Some of the Egyptian papyri Joseph Smith owned were given to the Church by New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (Nov.)

  • Two-month language training instituted for full-time missionaries (Jan.)

  • Relief Society General President Belle S. Spafford named president of US National Council of Woman (17 Oct.); she served two years

  • First missionaries arrive in Spain (June)

  • President David O. McKay died (18 Jan.); Joseph Fielding Smith became 10th President of the Church, with Harold B. Lee and N. Eldon Tanner as counselors (23 Jan.)

  • First missionaries sent to Indonesia (Jan.)

  • Monday designated for family home evening Churchwide (Oct.)

  • Publication of new Church magazines began: Ensign, New Era, and Friend (Jan.)

  • Medical missionary program began (July)

  • First area conference held in Manchester, England, (27–29 Aug.)

  • President Joseph Fielding Smith died (2 July); Harold B. Lee became 11th President of the Church, with N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney as counselors (7 July)

  • President Harold B. Lee died (26 Dec.) Spencer W. Kimball became 12th President of the Church, with N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney as counselors (30 Dec.)

  • Creation of Welfare Services Department announced (7 Apr.)

  • Washington D.C. Temple dedicated (19 Nov.)

  • Teton Dam in Idaho burst, affecting thousands of Latter-day Saints (5 June)

  • The 28-story Church Office Building was dedicated (24 July; Church departments had begun moving in Nov. 1972)

  • Two revelations accepted for addition to Pearl of Great Price (3 Apr.); later moved to Doctrine and Covenants (6 June 1979; see D&C 137; 138)

  • Organization of First Quorum of the Seventy announced (1 Oct.)

  • Language Training Center constructed in Provo, Utah; later became Missionary Training Center and used to train all missionaries (26 Oct. 1978)

  • New format for general conferences announced (1 Jan.): first Sunday in each April and October and preceding Saturday

  • Sao Paolo Brazil Temple, first in South America, dedicated (30 Oct.)

  • LDS edition of King James Bible published (29 Sept.)

  • Revelation announced allowing worthy men of all races to receive priesthood (June; see Official Declaration 2)

  • 1,000th stake organized at Nauvoo, Illinois (18 Feb.)

  • Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem dedicated (24 Oct.)

  • 2,930,810

  • Spencer W. Kimball

  • Ezra Taft Benson

    (President of the Church, 10 Nov. 1985)

  • Howard W. Hunter

  • Gordon B. Hinckley

  • Church celebrated 150th anniversary (6 Apr.)

  • Consolidated, 3-hour Sunday meeting schedule began in US and Canada (2 Mar.)

  • Church membership reached five million (announced 1 Apr.)

  • Term of service for single elders on full-time missions reduced to 18 months (2 Apr.); later changed back to 24 months (26 Nov. 1984)

  • New version of triple combination published (Sept.)

  • Elder Gordon B. Hinckley called as third counselor in First Presidency (23 July)

  • Threefold mission of the Church proclaimed (4 Apr.)

  • Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City dedicated (4 Apr.)

  • Area Presidencies appointed (24 June)

  • First regional conference held in London, England (16 Oct.)

  • Freiberg Germany Temple, in then communist-controlled German Democratic Republic, dedicated (29 June)

  • Church Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City dedicated (23 Oct.)

  • Revised LDS hymnbook published, first in 37 years (2 Aug.)

  • Seventies quorums in stakes discontinued (4 Oct.)

  • President Spencer W. Kimball died (5 Nov.); Ezra Taft Benson became 13th President of the Church, with Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson as counselors (10 Nov.)

  • 1,500th stake organized, Ciudad Obregon Mexico Yaqui Stake, 150 years after first stake was organized in Kirtland, Ohio (28 Oct.)

  • Church’s Genealogical Department renamed Family History Department (15 Aug.)

  • Church members in Britain commemorated 150th anniversary of first missionary work in Great Britain (24–26 July)

  • Announcement that Church granted rights for missionary work in German Democratic Republic (12 Nov.)

  • Missionaries expelled from West African nation of Ghana (14 June); later allowed to return (30 Nov. 1990)

  • Second Quorum of the Seventy organized (Apr.)

  • First stake in West Africa organized, Aba Nigeria Stake (15 May)

  • Church released FamilySearch software package to simplify family history research (2 Apr.)

  • Milestone of 100 million endowments completed for the dead (Aug.)

  • Tallin Estonia Branch established; first in Soviet Union (28 Jan.)

  • Russian Republic, largest in Soviet Union, granted formal recognition to the Church (24 June)

  • 100th anniversary of founding of the Church in Tonga observed (13–27 Aug.)

  • 150th anniversary of founding of Relief Society celebrated (14 Mar.)

  • Encyclopedia of Mormonism published by Macmillian Published by Macmillian Publishing Co.

  • Literacy program sponsored by Relief Society announced (15 Dec.)

  • Refurbished, remodeled Hotel Utah renamed, rededicated the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (27 June)

  • TempleReady computer software announced (8 Nov.)

  • President Ezra Taft Benson died (30 May); Howard W. Hunter became 14th President of the Church, with Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson as counselors (5 June)

  • Church membership: 4,639,822

  • 7,761,207

  • Howard W. Hunter (President of the Church, 5 June 1994)

  • Gordon B. Hinckley (President of the Church, 12 Mar. 1995)

  • President Howard W. Hunter died (3 Mar.); Gordon B. Hinckley became 15th President of the Church, with Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust as counselors (12 Mar.)

  • First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve issued “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (23 Sept.)

  • Area Authority Seventies organized into three new quorums (5 Apr.)

  • Majority of members resided outside of US (28 Feb.)

  • Position of regional representative discontinued; new position of Area Authority Seventy announced (1 Apr.)

  • Construction of small temples announced (4 Oct.)

  • Church members throughout the world commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Mormon pioneers’ trek west

  • President Hinckley announced that there would be 100 operating temples by the end of 20th century (4 Apr.)

  • Church launched the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service (24 May)

  • First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles” (1 Jan.)

  • Membership passes 11 million (Sept.); more non-English-speaking members than English-speaking

  • Last general conference held in the Tabernacle (2–3 Oct.)

  • Perpetual Education Fund announced (31 Mar.)

  • First general conference held in new Conference Center (1–2 Apr.); Conference Center dedicated (8 Oct.)

  • Boston Massachusetts Temple, 100th operating temple, dedicated (1 Oct.)

  • The 100 millionth copy of Book of Mormon printed; Book of Mormon printed in its 100th language

  • Rebuilt Nauvoo Illinois Temple dedicated on 158th anniversary of martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum (27 June)

  • 11,068,861

US History

  • The Second “Great Awakening” (religious revival) (1800–30)

  • US capital moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C.

  • Thomas Jefferson, President 1801–09

  • Louisiana Purchase negotiated with France; size of US doubled

  • Ohio became 17th state

  • Robert Fulton invented the steamboat

  • Lewis and Clark expedition, overland to Pacific Coast and back, began from St. Louis, Missouri (1804–6)

  • Lewis and Clark first saw the Rocky Mountains

  • Congressional act prohibiting African slave trade took effect

  • The Missouri Gazette became first newspaper published west of the Mississippi River

  • James Madison, President 1809–17

  • Construction began on Cumberland Road, connecting Maryland with West Virginia

  • Louisiana became 18th state

  • The War of 1812 began (1812–15)

  • British forces burned Washington, D.C.

  • Francis Scott Key wrote “Star-Spangled Banner”

  • US population: 5,308,483

  • 7,239,881

  • First charter granted for a railroad in US

  • The year without a summer; crops failed in New England as a result of volcanic eruption in Indonesia the previous year

  • Indiana became 19th state

  • Mississippi became 20th state

  • Construction of Erie Canal began

  • James Monroe, President 1817–25

  • Illinois became 21st state

  • Spain ceded East Florida to US

  • Alabama became 22nd state

  • Maine became 23rd state

  • Missouri became 24th state

  • Monroe Doctrine, warning European countries about interference with countries in western hemisphere, announced

  • Jim Bridger discovered the Great Salt Lake

  • John Quincy Adams, President 1825–29

  • Erie Canal, a 363-mile-long waterway from Albany to Buffalo, New York, completed

  • Jedediah Smith, trailblazer and trapper, was the first white man to travel overland from the Mississippi River to California; he led first group from the Great Salt Lake to southern California to assess trapping potential (to 1827)

  • Noah Webster published his first dictionary

  • Andrew Jackson, President 1829–37

  • First steam-powered locomotive in US; first passenger rail line

  • 9,638,453

  • President Jackson signed Indian Removal Act, moving Indians from the East to the West, making land east of the Mississippi River available for settlement

  • Cyrus McCormick introduced mechanical grain harvester

  • US tried to purchase Texas from Mexico

  • Arkansas became 25th state

  • Battle of the Alamo

  • Martin Van Buren, President 1837–41

  • Michigan became 26th state

  • Financial and economic crisis

  • More than 15,000 Indians along Missouri River die of small pox

  • Cherokee Indians “Trail of Tears” forced move

  • Charles Goodyear discovered process of “vulcanization,” making commercial use of rubber possible

  • First baseball game played, in Cooperstown, New York

  • William Henry Harrison, President for 31 days; he died of pneumonia

  • John Tyler, President 1841–45

  • Crawford W. Long used ether for surgical anesthesia

  • First large group migrated west on Oregon Trail; left from Independence, Missouri

  • Samuel Morse sent first telegraph message

  • US population: 12,866,020

  • 17,068,953

  • James K. Polk, President 1845–49

  • Iowa became 29th state

  • Florida and Texas became the 27th and 28th states

  • Great Britain gave Oregon Territory to US

  • John Deere constructed steel plow

  • Wisconsin became 30th state

  • Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended Mexican War; US gained most of present-day Southwest states

  • Zachary Taylor, President 1849–50 (died of cholera while in office)

  • Millard Fillmore, President 1850–53

  • California became 31st state

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  • Herman Melville published Moby Dick

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter

  • Franklin Pierce, President 1853–57

  • First American kindergarten began in Waterton, Wisconsin

  • Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass

  • Henry David Thoreau published Walden, or Life in the Woods

  • James Buchanan, President 1857–61

  • Minnesota became 32nd state

  • Oregon became 33rd state

  • Gold discovered at Cherry Creek, now part of Colorado (near Denver)

  • First major discovery of silver in US, the Comstock Lode, in present-day Nevada

  • 23,191,876

  • Pony express began mail service to West Coast

  • US population: 31,443,321

  • Abraham Lincoln, President 1861–65

  • Civil War began (to 1865)

  • Kansas became 34th state

  • Transcontinental telegraph lines completed at Salt Lake City juncture

  • President Lincoln signed Emancipation Proclamation

  • First coins minted with “In God We Trust”

  • West Virginia became 35th state

  • Nevada became 36th state

  • Andrew Johnson, President 1865–69

  • President Lincoln assassinated

  • Thirteenth Amendment ratified, abolishing slavery

  • Nevada became 36th state

  • Nebraska became 37th state

  • US purchased Alaska from Russia

  • Louisa May Alcott published Little Women

  • Ulysses S. Grant, President 1869–77

  • America’s first transcontinental railroad completed at Promontory, Utah

  • Chicago, Illinois, fire killed 300, left 90,000 homeless, destroyed 18,000 buildings, and did $200 million in property damage

  • Yellowstone National Park established

  • P.T. Barnum opened his circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth”

  • Pressure-cooking method for canning foods introduced

  • 38,558,371

  • Battle of the Little Bighorn

  • Colorado became 38th state

  • Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

  • Thomas Edison invented the phonograph

  • Rutherford B. Hayes, President 1877–81

  • Thomas Edison developed electric incandescent light bulb

  • Over 14,000 people killed during yellow fever epidemic in the South

  • James A. Garfield, President 1881

  • Chester A. Arthur, President 1881–85

  • Clara Barton organized American Red Cross

  • Edmunds Act, anti-polygamy legislation, signed into law

  • President James Garfield assassinated (he was shot 2 July and died 19 Sept.)

  • World’s first steel-framed “skyscraper” (10 stories high) completed in Chicago

  • Grover Cleveland, President 1885–89

  • Edmunds-Tucker Act, anti-polygamy legislation passed

  • The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, dedicated

  • Hannibal Goodwin invented celluloid film

  • George-Eastman produced coated photographic paper

  • George Eastman introduced the Kodak box camera

  • Benjamin Harrison, President 1889–93

  • North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington became the 39th–42nd states

  • Dam broke near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 5,000 people

  • 50,189,209

  • Idaho and Wyoming became 43rd and 44th states

  • Battle of Wounded Knee

  • Whitcomb Judson patented the zipper

  • Elllis Island opened as an immigration station

  • Grover Cleveland, President 1893–97

  • Stock market crash resulted in four-year economic depression

  • Utah became 45th state

  • “Separate but equal” facilities for whites and blacks ruled constitutional by Supreme Court

  • Klondike gold rush began

  • William McKinley, President 1897–1901

  • Spain and US declared war on each other over Cuba (Apr.–Dec.)

  • Scott Joplin’s composition “Maple Leaf Rag” sold over 1 million copies

  • Reginald Fessenden transmitted first speech by radio

  • Walter Reed discovered that yellow fever virus is carried by mosquitos

  • President William McKinley assassinated

  • Theodore Roosevelt, President 1901–9

  • Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan

  • Wright brothers flew a manned, motorized airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • US population: 62,979,766

  • 76,212,168

  • San Francisco earthquake killed 700 people; $400 million in property loss

  • Oklahoma became 46th state

  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) founded

  • Henry Ford introduced Model T automobile

  • William Howard Taft, President 1909–13

  • William D. Boyce organized Boy Scouts of America

  • W. E. B. DuBois founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

  • New Mexico and Arizona became 47th and 48th states

  • Woodrow Wilson, President 1913–21

  • Federal income tax introduced with ratification of Sixteenth Amendment

  • Robert H. Goddard began his rocketry experiments

  • First transcontinental telephone call, between New York and San Francisco

  • US entered World War I

  • Daylight-saving plan enacted to conserve fuel

  • Eighteenth Amendment ratified, prohibiting manufacture, sale, import, export, of alcoholic beverages (ended 1933)

  • Grand Canyon National Park established

  • 92,228,496

  • Nineteenth Amendment ratified, granting right to vote regardless of gender

  • Warren G. Harding, President 1921–23

  • Calvin Coolidge, President 1923–29

  • President Warren G. Harding died

  • George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered

  • “Scopes-Monkey Trial” found John Scopes guilty of teaching evolution in public school

  • Charles Lindberg completed 33.5-hour solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris

  • The Jazz Singer, first talking motion picture, opened

  • Herbert Hoover, President 1929–33

  • New York stock market crashed, beginning severe economic depression (to 1941)

  • Congress confirmed “Star-Spangled Banner” as national anthem

  • Philo Farnsworth developed electronic television

  • Amelia Earhart became first woman to make solo airplane flight across Atlantic

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President 1933–45

  • Twenty-first Amendment ratified, ending Prohibition

  • US population: 106,021,537

  • 123,202,624

  • Social Security Act signed, providing retirement pension funds and unemployment insurance; first payment was made in 1937

  • Olympic athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Berlin games

  • Plastics first used in manufacturing

  • Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opened

  • German dirigible Hindenburg exploded and burned while landing in New Jersey

  • Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds broadcast caused radio audience hysteria

  • Television demonstrated at New York World’s Fair

  • Composer Irving Berlin released “God Bless America”

  • Mt. Rushmore National Monument completed

  • Germany attacked US ships; Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; US entered World War II

  • Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical play Oklahoma! first produced

  • Polio epidemic killed almost 1,200 and crippled thousands

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized internment of Japanese-Americans

  • Harry S. Truman, President 1945–53

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt died

  • US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan

  • Under “GI Bill of Rights,” over 1 million war veterans enrolled in colleges

  • Religious training in public schools ruled unconstitutional

  • The X-1 airplane, rocket-powered, made the first supersonic flight

  • Atomic Energy Commission created

  • Transistor invented at Bell Telephone Laboratories

  • 132,164,569

  • Electricity produced using nuclear fuel

  • Color television first introduced

  • Lung cancer began to be linked to cigarette smoking

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower, President 1953–61

  • Jonas Stalk developed anti-polio vaccine

  • Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional

  • Interstate Highway system proposed

  • Rosa Parks, a black woman, arrested for refusing to sit at the back of a bus

  • Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California

  • Dr. Suess published The Cat in the Hat

  • US and Canada established North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established

  • Alaska and Hawaii became 49th and 50th states

  • John F. Kennedy, President 1961–63

  • Peace Corps established

  • Alan Shepard became the first American in space

  • Lyndon Baines Johnson, President 1963–69

  • Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech

  • President John F. Kennedy was assassinated

  • John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth

  • British band “The Beatles” first visited the US

  • US population: 151,325,798

  • 179,323,175

  • US entered Vietnam War

  • Tennessee’s “Monkey Law” repealed, allowing evolution to be taught in public schools

  • Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated

  • Richard M. Nixon, President 1969–74

  • Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon

  • Over 250,000 people gather in Washington, D.C. to protest US involvement in Vietnam

  • Twenty-sixth Amendment ratified, lowering voting age to eighteen

  • Two towers of World Trade Center in New York City, tallest buildings in the world, completed

  • Gerald R. Ford, President 1974–77

  • President Richard M. Nixon resigned as result of Watergate scandal

  • James Earl Carter Jr., President 1977–81

  • First space shuttle flight

  • Partial meltdown at Three-Mile Island nuclear plant released radioactivity into the air

  • U.S. bicentennial celebrated

  • Viking I and II space probes landed on Mars

  • Author Alex Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family

  • 203,302,031

  • Mount St. Helens, in Washington, erupted, killing 57 people

  • Voyager 1 photos revealed other moons around Saturn

  • Ronal W. Reagan, President 1981–89

  • Equal Rights Amendment defeated

  • IBM introduced first home or personal computer (PC)

  • First permanent artificial heart implanted

  • Sally Ride became first US woman in space

  • Apple Computer introduced the computer “mouse”

  • Space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff

  • George H. W. Bush, President 1989–93

  • Supreme Court ruled that money given directly to missionaries is not tax deductible

  • Oil tanker Valdez hit Alaskan reef, causing one of world’s largest oil spills (11 million gallons)

  • William Jefferson Clinton, President 1993–2001

  • Floods affecting nine states in the Midwest left 70,000 homeless, $12 billion damage

  • Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed into law

  • Militants bombed World Trade Center, New York City, killing 6 people

  • US population: 226,542,199

  • 248,718,301

  • Federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, bombed, 168 people killed

  • US troops in Bosnia (to 1996)

  • Tobacco companies agree to $206 billion settlement for health-related costs of smoking

  • Impeachment hearings for President William Clinton

  • Closest presidential election in US history; George W. Bush declared winner

  • George Walker Bush, President 2001–

  • After hijacking airplanes, terrorists crashed them into World Trade Center, New York City; the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; and in a field in Pennsylvania; over 3,000 people killed

  • Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah

  • 281,421,906 (Apr. 2000 Census)

World History

  • Eli Whitney (US) made muskets with interchangeable parts

  • William Herschel (Brit.) discovered infrared solar rays

  • Napoleonic Wars began; they last 12 years

  • Richard Trevithick (Brit.) built first steam locomotive

  • Napoleon Bonaparte crowned emperor in Paris, France

  • Napoleon proclaimed himself King of Italy

  • Earthquake in Naples, Italy killed nearly 26 thousand people

  • British Parliament passed act outlawing slave trade

  • Ludwig van Beethoven (Ger.) debuted his 5th and 6th Symphonies

  • Argentina, Colombia, and Chile declared their independence from Spain; Mexicans began fight for their independence from Spain

  • Francois Appert (Fr.) developed method for canning foods

  • Napoleon began his invasion of Russia

  • Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Ger.) published their fairy tales

  • After various defeats, Napoleon was banished to the island of Elba

  • Estimated world population: 813 million

  • Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia, killing about 10,000; indirectly contributed to worldwide death toll over 80,000 and causing major climate changes

  • Congress of Vienna (1814–15) generated political and geographical realignments of Europe

  • Napoleon left Elba to recapture France; defeated at Waterloo

  • Argentina declared independence from Spain

  • Chile gained independence from Spain

  • Franz X. Gruber (Austria) composed the music for “Silent Night”

  • King George III of Great Britain died; his son George IV became king

  • Napoleon died on the island of St. Helena

  • Earthquake in Syria killed 20,000 people

  • Mexico became a republic

  • Simon Bolivar completed campaign for independence for Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela

  • First steam locomotive railway in England began operating

  • John Walker (Eng.) introduced sulfur friction matches

  • King George IV of Great Britian died; his brother William IV became king

  • Charles Darwin sailed on surveying expedition on H.M.S. Beagle (to 1836)

  • Louis Braille (Fr.) perfected his reading system for the blind

  • Slavery abolished in the British Empire

  • Halley’s Comet reappeared (76-year cycle)

  • Hans Christian Anderson (Dan.) published first of his children’s stories

  • After the death of her uncle, Victoria became Queen of Great Britain

  • Public announcement of Louis Daguerre’s (Fr.) form of photography

  • Kirkpatrick Macmillan (Scot.) constructed first bicycle

  • China ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain

  • Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol

  • Friedrich Gottlob Keller (Ger.) invented wood pulp paper

  • Elias Howe (US) patented first lockstitch sewing machine

  • Potato crop failure led to famine in Ireland

  • Communist Manifesto issued by Marx and Engles

  • Armand Fizeau (Fr.) determined speed of light

  • Isaac Singer (US) patented first continuous stitch sewing machine

  • R.W. Bunsen (Ger.) produced a gas burner

  • Telegraph began operating between London and Paris

  • Crimean War began (to 1856)

  • During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale (Eng.) redefined the field of nursing

  • Commodore Matthew Perry (US) sailed to Japan (isolated for 150 years) to negotiate trade agreements

  • First transatlantic telegraph cable between the US and Britain completed

  • Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection

  • Estimated world population: 1.128 billion

  • Jean Etienne Lenoir (Fr.) demonstrated first practical internal combustion engine

  • All foreigners expelled from Japan

  • Victor Hugo (Fr.) published Les Miserables

  • Founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross

  • Louis Pasteur (Fr.) developed pasteurization

  • Lewis Carrol (Eng.) published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

  • Alfred Nobel (Swed.) invented dynamite

  • Britain granted four Canadian provinces dominion status

  • Gustave Dore (Fr.) created his illustrations for the Bible

  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russ.) published Crime and Punishment

  • Johannes Brahms (Germ.) composed Ein Deutsches Requiem

  • Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, opened

  • Franco-Prussian War (to 1871)

  • Jules Verne (Fr.) published Around the World in 80 Days

  • Color photography developed

  • Count Leo Tolstoy (Russ.) published Anna Karenina

  • Alexander Graham Bell (US) patented the telephone

  • Korea became an independent nation

  • Robert Louis Stevenson (Scot.) published Treasure Island

  • Eruption of Krakatoa, volcano in Indonesia, killed almost 36,000 on nearby islands

  • Karl Benz (Ger.) built first practical automobile powered by internal combustion engine

  • Nikola Tesla (US) built first alternating current (AC) electric motor

  • Eiffel Tower opened during Paris World Exhibition

  • Earthquake in Japan killed nearly 10,000 people

  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s (Russ.) The Nutcracker ballet performed for the first time

  • Rudyard Kipling (Eng.) published The Jungle Book

  • First modern Olympic games held in Athens, Greece

  • Wilhelm Rontgen (Ger.) discovered x-rays

  • Guglielmo Marconi (Ital.) invented radio telegraphy

  • Jewish Zionist Congress convened in Switzerland

  • Pierre and Marie Curie (Fr.) discovered radium

  • Boer War in South Africa began (ended 1902)

  • Boxer Rebellion against foreigners in China began (ended 1901)

  • Bayer company (Ger.) patented asprin

  • First magnetic recording of sound

  • Queen Victoria of England died; succeeded by her son Edward VII

  • Mount Pelee erupted killing nearly 29,000 people

  • Aswan Dam in Egypt opened

  • First Tour de France (bicycle race) held

  • Trans-Siberian railroad completed (4,607 miles)

  • Mohandas Ghandi began non-violent resistance movement in South Africa

  • A typhoon in Tahiti killed over 10,000 people

  • Sir Robert Baden-Powell (Eng.) founded Boy Scouts

  • Robert E. Peary (US) became first person to reach North Pole

  • Sigmund Freud (Aust.) introduced his theories on psychoanalysis

  • King Edward VII of England died; succeeded by George V

  • Roald Amundsen (Nor.) became first person to reach South Pole

  • SS Titanic sank after hitting iceberg: 1,513 passengers and crew died

  • Panama Canal opened

  • Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary assassinated, triggering World War I

  • Albert Einstein (Ger.) published his General Theory of Relativity

  • Battle of Verdun results in over 1 million soldiers being killed

  • Balfour Declaration declared Palestine as homeland for the Jews

  • Czar Nicholas II and his family execut

  • ed; Russian revolution (to 1921)

  • Influenza epidemic (killed 20 million people by 1920)

  • Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War I

  • Estimated world population: 1.75 billion

  • Earthquake in China killed over 180,000 people

  • The League of Nations was established

  • Mussolini established fascist dictatorship in Italy

  • King Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened in Egypt

  • Adolph Hitler published Mein Kampf

  • Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennet (US) made first airplane flight over North Pole

  • Economic system in Germany collapsed

  • Chiang Kai-shek overthrew Manchu dynasty; elected president of China

  • Josef Stalin began his Five-Year Plan in the Soviet Union

  • Alexander Fleming (Brit.) discovered penicillin

  • Max Theiler (S. Afr.) developed yellow fever vaccine

  • Mohandas “Mahatma” Ghandi began a “fast unto death” and urged a boycott of British goods to protest British goods to protest British government’s treatment of India’s lowest cast, the “untouchables”; helped bring reforms

  • Hitler gained titled of Fuhrer and control of Germany

  • First concentration camps erected by the Nazis in Germany; by 1945, 8–10 million prisoners were interned, at least half of them (most of them Jews) were killed

  • Estimate: 1,860 Million

  • Estimated world population: 2.07 billion

  • Robert Watson-Watt (Scot.) built radar equipment to detect aircraft

  • Spanish Civil War began (ended 1939)

  • King George V of England died and was succeeded by his son Edward VIII; Edward VIII later abdicated and was succeeded by his brother George VI

  • Frank Whittle (Brit.) built first jet engine

  • Lajos Biro (Hung.) invented ballpoint pen

  • Germany invaded Poland; World War II began (ended 1945)

  • German blitz on London began; nearly one-third of the city destroyed by end of year

  • C. S. Lewis (Eng.) published The Screwtape Letters

  • Famine in India killed at least 1.5 million people

  • Allies launched “D-Day” invasion of Europe

  • Selman Waksman (US) discovered streptomycin

  • World War II ended

  • United Nations held first session

  • Cold War began (to 1990); British Prime Minister Winston Churchhill coined term “Iron Curtain”

  • Dead Sea Scrolls discovered

  • To prove prehistoric immigration, Thor Hyerdahl (Nor.) took raft expedition from Peru to Polynesia

  • Israel declared an independent state

  • German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany created, splitting Germany into East and West Germany

  • World Council of Churches organized

  • Independent Republic of Ireland established

  • Estimated world population: 2.3 billion

  • Korean War began (ended 1953)

  • First thermo-nuclear bomb detonated, in the Marshall Islands

  • The Diary of Anne Frank published

  • King George VI of England died; succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II

  • First hydrogen bomb detonated

  • Sir Edmund Hillary (N.Z.) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) first to reach peak of Mt. Everest, world’s tallest mountain

  • In South Africa, armed police move 60,000 blacks from an area to be used by whites only

  • Transatlantic cable telephone service began

  • Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, first artificial satellite

  • Nikita Khrushchev became leader of USSR

  • Fidel Castro took control of Cuban government

  • Vietnam War (to 1973)

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion failed in Cuba

  • Yuri Gagarin (USSR) became the first man in space; he orbited the earth

  • East Germany built Berlin Wall

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Telstar (US), first communications satellite, launched

  • Leonid Brezhnev became leader of USSR

  • Valentina Tereshkova (USSR) became the first woman in space

  • World population: 2.555 billion

  • 3.04 billion

  • Six-day Israeli-Arab War

  • First human heart transplant performed in South Africa

  • First World Conference on Records was held (in Salt Lake City)

  • Aswan High Dam in Egypt completed

  • Cyclones and floods in East Pakistan killed 500,000 people

  • Earthquakes, floods, and landslides killed 30,000 people in Peru

  • Earthquake in Nicaragua killed over 10,000 people

  • Vietnam War ended, US troops pulled out

  • Oil-producing Arab nations ban export of oil to US, western Europe, and Japan (to 1974) because of their support of Israel, resulting in energy crisis

  • Author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn expelled from Soviet Union after publishing The Gulag Archipelago

  • Communists took over government of South Vietnam

  • Earthquakes in Italy, China, Philippines, Turkey, Bali, and Guatemala killed an estimated 780,000 people

  • US confirmed testing of neutron bomb

  • Mother Theresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

  • Margaret Thatcher became first woman prime minister of Britain

  • 3.708 billion

  • Soviet cosmonauts returned to earth after 185 days on a space station

  • Most severe El Nino (1982–83) to date caused worldwide weather anomalies

  • Compact disk for pulic use launched

  • Toxic gas leak in Bhopal, India, killed over 2,000 people

  • AIDS virus identified

  • Mikhail Gorbachev became premier of Soviet Union

  • Nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded; 133,000 evacuated; clouds of fallout affected all of Europe

  • Earthquake in Armenia killed over 40,000 people

  • Tiananmen Square Massacre in China; 300–400 prodemocracy students killed

  • Berlin Wall dismantled

  • Soviet parliament voted to allow freedom of religious belief

  • USSR dissolved; became Russian Federation

  • Persian Gulf War

  • Cold War formally ended

  • Nelson Mandela became first black president of South Africa

  • Public Internet era began

  • Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) opened, linking England and France

  • World population: 4.454 billion Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) identified

  • 5.276 billion

  • Earthquake in Kobe, Japan killed over 5,000 people

  • Control of Hong Kong returned to China

  • Panama takes over control of Panama Canal from US

  • Australians voted to retain British monarchy as head of state rather than elect president

  • 6.79 billion

Nauvoo Illinois Temple

Nauvoo Temple, rebuilt

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