20th century

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

1900s

1900

• April 8 - Reed Smoot is ordained an apostle.

1901

• October 10: President Lorenzo Snow passes away, leaving Joseph F. Smith to lead the 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.

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.

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.

1910s

1911

• John W. Taylor is excommunicated for performing a plural marriage despite the Second Manifesto issued by 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 President of the LDS church Joseph F. Smith

1913

• October 1 - President Joseph F. Smith dedicates the Seagull Monument in the Temple Square of Salt Lake City, Utah.

1918

• October 4: President 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 President Smith's revelation as official church canon.
• November 19: President Joseph F. Smith passes away, and Heber J. Grant leads the church.

1920s

1920

• John Williamson, Sr. died.

1927

• Arizona Temple was dedicated.

1929

• July 15 - Using a single microphone for the speaker, organ, and choir, Music and the Spoken Word performs its first radio broadcast. Richard L. Evans is the speaker.

1940s

1945

• May 14: President Heber J. Grant, the last LDS church president to have practiced polygamy, dies. George Albert Smith becomes the next president of the church.

1948

• President George Albert Smith petitions 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

• August 8: President 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.

1951

• April 4: President 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.

1952

• February 3: Elder Joseph F. Merrill dies.
• April 6: LeGrand Richards is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• November 20: Elder John A. Widtsoe dies.

1953

• April 9: Adam S. Bennion is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• July 15: Elder Albert E. Bowen dies.
• October 8: Richard L. Evans is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1958

• February 11: Elder Adam S. Bennion dies after serving only five years.
• April 10: Hugh B. Brown is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1960s

1961

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

1962

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

1963

• September 18: Elder Henry D. Moyle dies.
• October 4: Thomas S. Monson is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• October: Elder N. Eldon Tanner, after having been an apostle for only one year, is called as second counselor to President David O. McKay in the First Presidency. He spends the rest of his life serving in the First Presidency.

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,^[1] all who cannot hold priesthood in the church until the revelation received in 1978.^[2]

1969

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

1970s

1970

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

1971

• 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: Elder Richard L. Evans dies.
• December 2: Marvin J. Ashton is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1972

• July 2: After serving for two years as president, Joseph Fielding Smith dies and Harold B. Lee becomes president.
• Bruce R. McConkie is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1973

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

1974

• April 11: L. Tom Perry is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• July: The Church implements a major reorganization, including standardized naming of missions and stakes.

1975

• November 11–November 12 - President Spencer W. Kimball rededicates the St. George Utah Temple after renovation.
• December 2: Elder Hugh B. Brown dies.

1976

• January 8: David B. Haight is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1978

• June 1: President 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 temple, he takes the matter before the Lord, as many previous presidents of the church have done.
• June 9: President 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, 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, 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: Elder Delbert L. Stapley dies.
• September 30: President N. Eldon Tanner reads Official Declaration—2 to the General Conference, and it is unanimously adopted as the word and will of the Lord on the same day. 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.

1980s

1981

• July 23: Elder Gordon B. Hinckley is called as third counselor in the First Presidency due to the physical weakness of Presidents 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 to fill the vacancy left by Hinckley's call to the First Presidency.

1982

• November 27: President N. Eldon Tanner dies. Consequently, Marion G. Romney is named as First Counselor, and Gordon B. Hinckley is named as Second Counselor.

1983

• January 11: Elder LeGrand Richards dies.

1984

• January 11: Elder Mark E. Petersen dies.
• 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.

1985

• April 19: Elder Bruce R. McConkie dies.
• October 10: M. Russell Ballard is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• November 5: President Spencer W. Kimball dies. Ezra Taft Benson becomes the 13th president of the church.

1986

• October 9: Joseph B. Wirthlin is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1988

• May 20: President Marion G. Romney, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dies.
• October 1: Richard G. Scott is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1990s

1994

• February 25: Elder Marvin J. Ashton dies.
• April 7: Robert D. Hales is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• May 30: President Ezra Taft Benson dies. Howard W. Hunter becomes president.
• June 23: Jeffrey R. Holland is ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1995

• March 3: President Howard W. Hunter dies after serving only nine months as president. Gordon B. Hinckley becomes his successor.
• March 12: President Gordon B. Hinckley is set apart as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• April 1: Henry B. Eyring is ordained and set apart in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

1997

• June 1: The St. Louis, Missouri, Temple is dedicated and becomes the Church's 50th operating temple.

See also

• 19th century (Mormonism)
• 21st century (Mormonism)

References