May 1

1831 – About this time, the Prophet Joseph Smith received the revelation known as Doctrine and Covenants 50.  He records that he inquired of the Lord when a number of Elders, “not understanding the different spirits abroad in the earth’ needed further instructions to help identify false spirits and the proper workings of the Spirit.  (History of the Church, 1:170-173).

1832 – A Church council in Independence, Missouri, presided over by the Prophet Joseph Smith, decides to print three thousand copies of the Book of Commandments.  W. W. Phelps was also appointed to correct and print the hymns Emma Smith had selected for the first LDS hymnbook.

1834 – The first members of Zion’s Camp leave Kirtland and travel to New Portage, Ohio, on their way to Missouri.

1839 – The Prophet Joseph records, “I this day purchased, in connection with others of the committee, a farm of Hugh White, consisting of one hundred and thirty-five acres, for the sum of five thousand dollars’ (History of the Church, 3:342).  This was the first purchase of ground in the future city of Nauvoo, Illinois.

1841 – The first cohort of the Nauvoo Legion, consisting of four companies, was organized. Also, the Nauvoo City Council voted to purchase a burying ground outside the city limits.  Today, visitors may visit the Pioneer Burial Ground near Nauvoo.

1842 – In his Sunday discourse, the Prophet Joseph stated that there are certain keys of the kingdom, “keys are certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed.’  He also taught about charity saying that “the rich cannot be saved without charity, giving to feed the poor when and how God requires, as well as building’ (History of the Church, 4:608).

1843 – The Prophet Joseph spent some time with Lucien Woodworth and gave him some money towards the building of the Nauvoo House that he had borrowed from William Allen.  He also records the reported discovery, on April 23rd near Kinderhook, Illinois, of some plates buried with a skeleton.

1844 – Francis M. Higbee filed a legal complaint in the Fifth Judicial District of Illinois, suing Joseph Smith for slander and requesting damages of five thousand dollars.

1846 – The original Nauvoo Temple is publicly dedicated by Elder Orson Hyde. Tickets were sold to the dedication for $1.00 to help pay the workers who had helped to finish the building.  With the private dedication the previous evening, this dedication was more for the public than for Church purposes. Within five months, only a handful of Latter-day Saints remained in the City of Nauvoo to attempt to sell properties of the Saints. In September the mob took control of the City and the Temple, desecrating and defiling it.

1847 – The first Pioneer wagon train encountered Buffalo for the first time.  A three hour hunt resulted in enough meat to be distributed equally among the tents.  The hunt took place in site of the rest of the wagons that continued moving west.  They covered 18 miles during the day.

1869 – Brigham Young dedicates the first Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) store in Salt Lake City.  There would soon be more than 150 retail cooperatives established in LDS settlements throughout the Intermountain West.

1927 – A Mormon pioneer monument in San Bernadino, California is dedicated by Elder Richard R. Lyman in memory of the original five hundred Latter-day Saints who settled the area in 1851.

1960 – First stake in Oklahoma is organize in Tulsa.

1966 – The first stake in Brazil and South America was organized in Sao Paulo.

1991 – The Church calls the five hundred thousandth full-time missionary to serve in this dispensation.

2001 – The Church received the 2001 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York State for its “careful restoration’ of the rural farmhouse of the Joseph Smith, Sr. family in Palmyra, New York.

2004 – The Church News reported that a collection of rare Christian manuscripts have been preserved by Brigham Young University in collaboration with the Vatican Library that tell the story of the Assyrian Church of the East. The texts, some dating to the 5th and 6th centuries, contain 14,000 page images in a digital library of 33 important Syriac Christian manuscripts.

2007 – In a huge Helping Hands project, some 60,000 members and friends of the Church throughout Brazil prepared 200,000 items for 300 hospitals in 190 cities that included clothing, bedding, and other items.

2010 – Church member, Dianne Callister, is name the National Mother of the Year by American Mothers, Inc., at their 75th annual conference held in New York City.

2011 – The Atlanta Georgia Temple is rededicated after extensive renovation by President Thomas S. Monson.

2013 – Thousands of tree saplings were planted across Haiti on the first day of a tree planting project that will result in planting of 400,000 trees designed to deliver hope and beauty to the damaged nation during the 30 year anniversary celebration of the Church in Haiti.

2014 –  Elder Cecil O. Samuelson, Jr. is released as President and Kevin J. Worthen becomes the thirteenth President of Brigham Young University-Provo.