Milestones in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Here's a limited chronological listing of highlights -- key, important dates --  in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

1820, spring: First Vision by Joseph Smith.

1823, Sept. 21-22: Angel Moroni visits Joseph Smith

1827, Sept. 22: Joseph Smith receives the Golden Plates and the Urim and Thummin.

1829, May 15: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receive the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist.

1829, May or June: Peter, James and John receive the Melchizedek Priesthood from Peter, James and John.

1829, June: Book of Mormon translation completed. Three Witnesses are shown the Golden Plates by the heavenly messenger and later eight witnesses.

1830, March 26: Some 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon are printed.

1830, April 6: Church of Christ is organized.

1833, Jan. 22-23: School of Prophets begins.

1833, Feb. 27: The Prophet Joseph Smith receives the Word of Wisdom.

1833, March 18: First Presidency is organized.

1833, July 2: Joseph Smith finishes his retranslation of the New Testament.

1834, Feb. 17: The first Stake in the church is organized in Kirtland.

1835, Feb. 14: Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is organized.

1835, Feb. 28: First Quorum ("Council") of the Seventy is organized.

1835: The Doctrine and Covenants is issue (The forerunner "Book of Commandments ..." had been issued in 1833.) 

1836, March 27: First modern temple is dedicated, the Kirtland Temple.

1836, April 3: The Savior, Moses, Elias and Elijah appear to Joseph Smith and Olive Cowdery and restore the keys of their dispensation.

1838, April 26: Official name of the church is given by revelation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1838, July 6: The exodus from Kirtland commences to Far West, Mo.

1838, July 8: Revelation on the law of tithing is received.

1839, April 20: Final church members leave Far West, Mo. and soon after end what in what will become Nauvoo, Ill.

1841, Jan. 19: Baptism for the Dead revelation received.

1842, March 1:  Articles of Faith are published.

1842, March 17: Relief Society is organized.

1843, July 12, Eternal marriage revelation is received.

1844, June 27: Joseph and Hyrum Smith are murdered by a mob at a jail in Carthage, Ill.

1844, Aug. 8: Twelve Apostles are sustained as leading the church.

1845-1846, Dec. 10-Feb. 17: About 5,000 members receive their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple.

1846, Feb. 4: Migration from Nauvoo begins to temporary camps in Iowa and Nebraska.

1847, April 5: First pioneer company heads west.

1847, July 22-24: First pioneers arrive in Salt Lake Valley.

1847, July 28: Brigham Young dedicates Salt Lake Temple site.

1847, Dec. 5: First Presidency reorganized in Kanesville, Iowa, by Council of the 12, with Brigham Young as prophet.

1849, Feb 14: Great Salt Lake City divided into 19 wards.

1849, Dec. 9: Sunday School begins.

1851, Jan. 26: First stake outside Salt Lake, the Weber Stake in Ogden is organized.

1851, Nov. 11: The University of the State of Deseret (now University of Utah) begins.

1852, Aug. 28-29: The practice of plural marriage, for the first time ever,  is publicly acknowledged as happening in the church. (Previously it was privately practiced.)

1853, Feb. 14: Ground is broken on the Salt Lake Temple.

1855, May 5: The Endowment House is dedicated.

1867, Oct. 6: First Conference in the just finished Tabernacle is held.

1869, May 10: Transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah.

1869, Nov. 28, Young Ladies Retrenchment Association, forerunner to Young Women's Mutual Association, is organized.

1875, June 10: Young Men's Mutual Improvement organized begins.

1877, April 6: St. George Temple is dedicated.

1877, Aug. 27: Brigham Young dies at age 76.

1878, Aug. 25: Primary begins.

1879: The Book of Mormon is divided into chapters and verses, with references.

1884, May 17: Logan Temple, the church's second, is dedicated.

1897, February: The federal Edmunds-Tucker Act seizes all church property. (This is not rescinded until 1893-1896.)

1889, April 6: First Relief Society General Conference is held.

1890, Sept. 24: "Manifesto" is issued.

1893, April 6: Salt Lake Temple is dedicated.

1895, June 9: The first stake outside the U.S., in Cardston, Canada is organized.

1896, Jan. 4: Utah is made a state.

1896, Nov. 5: Fast day is now the first Sunday of the month, rather than the first Thursday.

1898, April 1: The Church's first-ever full-time sister missionaries are set apart.

1899, May 8: The payment of tithes is stressed at a St. George conference. (The church was in deep debt and had issued bonds 7 months earlier.)

1900, July 24: The Brigham Young Monument is unveiled in downtown Salt Lake City.

1902: The first volume of History of the Church is published. (The last and 7th volume would not be added until 1932.)

1902, Aug. 4: A limited visitor booth opens on Temple Square.

1907, Jan. 10: The church announced it is totally free of debt now.

1911: The Boy Scout program is adopted by the church.

1912: The first seminary in the church opens at Granite High School.

1912, Nov. 8: Church creates a Correlation Committee.

1915, April 27: The Family Home Evening program begins.

1917, Oct. 2: Church Administration Building opens.

1918, Oct. 2: President Joseph F. Smith receives a revelation that will become D&C 138 in 1979.

1919, April: General Conference is not held, due to a flu epidemic.

1919, November: There is no public funeral for President Joseph F. Smith, because of the continuing flu epidemic.

1920: Ward chapels and cultural halls are from henceforth designed to be connected.

1924, Oct. 3: Church enters the broadcast age as General Conference is broadcast on the radio.

1925, Feb. 3: The church dedicates its first "MTC," a home at 31 N. State Street.

1929, July 15: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir begins a weekly broadcast, destined to be the world's longest continuing broadcast program.

1931: The Utah Legislature passed a bill approving the transfer of LDS-owned Weber College and Snow College to the state collegiate system. 

1936, April: The church begins a formal welfare program.

1938, Aug. 14: The first Deseret Industries store opens in Salt Lake.

1942, March 23: The church began using only older men, who were high priests or seventies, for full-time missionary work, until World War II ends.

1942, April: The Tabernacle is closed to the public duringWorld War II and all general conferences during that time are open only to leaders. (This continues until Sept. 1945.)

1942, April 18: The "superintendents" term for church auxiliary leaders disappears and is replaced with "presidents."

1946, May 2: The Sacrament is now to be passed to the presiding authority first.

1947: The church reaches the 1 million member mark.

1949, October: General Conference is broadcast for the first time on television.

1952, April: General Priesthood meeting is sent to chapels outside the Tabernacle by new telephone technology.

1953: The Cub Scout program begins in the church.

1953, March 25: Full-time missionaries now report to their local stake leaders, instead of the First Presidency.

1954, July: The Indian Placement program begins.

1954, Aug. 31: Priest and teacher ordination age is lower to 16 and 14, vs. the former 15 and 17.

1955, Dec. 27: The first college wards are created in the church, at BYU.

1956, Oct. 3: The Relief Society Building is dedicated.

1957, October: General Conference is canceled because of a flu outbreak.

1959, April 6: The "every member a missionary" program begins.

1960, July 21: Young men can now serve full time missions at age 19, without certain education and military service requirements.

1961, November: BYU established a language training center for missionaries.

1963, December: The Granite record vaults in Little Cottonwood Canyon are completed.

1964, January: Home teaching replaces ward teaching.

1969, January: Two months of language training is now the norm for foreign speaking missionaries.

1970, January: A computerized tithing system begins.

1970, October: Monday is now the designated Family Home Evening night. (Previously wards could choose a night.)

1971, January: The Ensign and New Era magazines begin.

1971, September: All LDS Women are not automatically enrolled in the Relief Society and dues for the group end.

1972: Church sports programs end at the regional level now, instead of going all-church.

1974, June 23: MIA is discontinued as the name for church youth programs.

1974, Sept. 6: The church divests its 15 hospitals into a non-profit organization.

1975, July 24: The 28-story Church Office Building is dedicated.

1978, March 31: Stake conferences are to be held twice a year now, instead of quarterly.

1978, June 9: Worthy Black males can now hold the priesthood, as new revelation was announced.

1978, Sept. 9: An MTC in Provo now replaces the Salt Lake Mission Home. (This also means missionaries no longer have a "Solemn Assembly" with the Prophet in the Salt Lake Temple, as part of their training.)

1978, Sept. 16: A Young Women's conference is now held each fall.

1978, Sept. 30: Emeritus status for some general authorities begins.

1979, Feb. 18: The church's 1,000th stake is created in Nauvoo, Ill.

1979, Sept. 29: A new King James Bible is released by the church.

1980, March 2: Block time meetings begin.

1981, Sept. 12: The less costly Sage design chapel is announced.

1981: The church discontinues the historic Delta Phi Kappa Fraternity, as the last chapter holdout, Weber State, closes.

1981, Sept. 26: The church releases a new triple combination set of scriptures.

1985: A new Hymn book is published,the first in 37 years.

1986, Oct. 4: Seventies quorums in stakes are discontinued.

1987: The Hotel Utah closes, to be renovated to a chapel/office structure.

1989: The Second Quorum of the Seventy is created.

1989, May 16: The BYU Jerusalem Center is dedicated.

1989, Nov. 25: Stake and ward budget assessments end. The costs for all full-time missionaries are equalized.

1995: Area Authorities are announced, as a new calling.

1995: The Family Proclamation is released.

1996, Feb. 28: The majority of church members now live outside the U.S.

1996: The church begins a humanitarian fund.

1997: Third, Fourth and Fifth Quorums of the Seventy are announced.

1997: A commemorative wagon train reenacts the pioneer trek to Utah 150 years earlier.

1997, June 1: Priesthood and Relief Society lessons will be the same starting in 1998, comes an announcement.

1997, November: Church membership surpasses 10 million.

1999, Oct. 2-3: The last General Conference is held in the Tabernacle, as the Conference Center opens next year.

2000: The 100 millionth copy of The Book of Mormon is published, as well as its printing in its 100th different language.

2001: Ricks College is renamed BYU-Idaho.

2002, Feb. 8-24: Salt Lake City hosts the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. More than 10,000 visitors a day visit Temple Square.

2003, Jan. 11: The first-ever satellite transmitted priesthood leadership meeting is held globally, reaching more than 97 percent of all leaders.

2004: The Sixth Quorum of the Seventy is created.

2004, November: The "Preach My Gospel" missionary program premieres.

2005, April: The Seventh and Eighth Quorums of the Seventy are created.

2005: Plans for a new Church History Library are announced.

2007: The Salt Lake Tabernacle closes for extensive renovations and to meet seismic codes. Seating capacity is reduced by about 1,000.

2008: The first volume in the Joseph Smith Papers series is released.

2012, October: The age for young men to serve full-time missions is reduced by one year to age 18. The age for young women to serve is lower from 21 to age 19.

2013: The Church's membership exceeds 15 million.

SOURCES: Church News Almanac, Google, personal notes.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.