The Church becomes an organisation as well as a people. Seminaries and institutes begin, the welfare programme is built during the Depression, general conference goes out by radio, and the first temples outside the continental United States are dedicated in Hawaii, Canada and Arizona. Two world wars run straight through the middle of it.
1,037 entries in this era, shown 200 to a page. This is page 5 of 6, covering 1941 to 1948. See the same material on the moving timeline.
First counselor J Reuben Clark tells annual conference of youth and their leaders: "When I was a boy it was preached from the stand, and my father and mother repeated the principle to me time and time again. They said, 'Reuben, we had rather bury you than to have you become unchaste.' and that is the law of this Church."
First Presidency letter in favor of right to work without joining labor union.
First Presidency orders Clayton Investment Company to get rid of its "whore-houses," no matter the financial loss, so that church affiliated company can merge with church owned Zion's Securities Corp. Ends fifty years of church's leases to brothels.
Set apart as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
High priests as Assistants to the Twelve are new general authority position. This is also first general conference broadcast outside Utah (to Idaho and southern California).
In 1941 there were 1,257 missionaries called to serve.
In general conference Apostle Joseph F. Smith preaches, "President Joseph F. Smith has said--I have heard him say it to the members of his family and elsewhere--that he would rather take his children to the grave, one by one, and lay them away, knowing that they would come forth worthy to receive the fulness of the kingdom of God, than to have them marry outside of the temple of the Lord, and deny themselves these privileges."
In general conference, the First Presidency announced the new position of Assistant to the Twelve, and the first five Assistants were called and sustained.
Leader of National Reform Association tells annual meeting of Christian Citizenship Institute that LDS church president Heber J. Grant is "the morst powerful political individual in America today" because "Grant patronizes presidents, makes bargains with great political parties, dictates the political policies of Utah and at least five surrounding states and wields effective political influence in at least five others." Grant tells the national press that the speaker should "purge himself of falsehood," and entire exchange appears in CHURCH SECTION on Nov. 29.
1941 Church Membership 892,080
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans and wounding 1,178. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. Four days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and on the same day the U.S. declared war on the European dictatorships.
The Presiding Bishopric inaugurated a new membership record system.
Western Canadian mission is created
WWII begins for the U.S. with the attack on Pearl Harbor; commercial FM broadcasting begins in the U.S.
Annual conference closed to general membership; held in the Assembly Hall.
Because of limitations on travel, the annual April general conference was closed to the general Church membership and confined to General Authorities and presidencies of the 141 stakes. The First Presidency on April 5, 1942, closed the Tabernacle for the duration of the war. Conference sessions were held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and in the assembly room of the Salt Lake Temple.
CHURCH SECTION emphasizes use of handkerchiefs to heal people at great distances, with photograph of "the silk handkerchief blessed and sent by President Lorenzo Snow to Elder Jacob Charles Jensen" to heal him in 1899.
Church Welfare leaders urged members to plant gardens, to bottle as many fruits and vegetables as they could utilize, and to store coal.
First Presidency announced calling only older high priests as missionaries.
First Presidency letter bans foreign-language meetings in United States. Directed particularly at German-speaking Mormons, this restriction ends thirty years later as conversion and immigration bring to U.S. congregations thousands of Europeans, Latin-Americans, and Asians who speak little or no English.
First Presidency orders bullet-proof glass for windows of its office to protect against air attack by Japanese.
First Presidency writes to Stake President Ezra Taft Benson concerning complaints of White Mormon women who are offended by having two Black LDS women sitting next to them at Relief Society: "It seems to us that it ought to be possible to work this situation out without causing any feelings on the part of anybody. If the white sisters feel that they may not sit with them or near them, we feel sure that if the colored sisters were discretely approached, they would be happy to sit at one side in the rear or somewhere where they would not wound the sensibilities of the complaining sisters. . . ."
First Presidency's finincial secretary refers to German-born Horst Scharffs as President Heber J. Grant's bodyguard. Apparently this is first time since 1887 that hierarchy has bodyguards.
First Presidency's most comprehensive statement on war, upholding patriotic service by Mormons in any country's military but condemning all national leaders who promote war. For first time, Sunday session of general conference is held in assembly room of Salt Lake temple where apostles pass the sacrament to assembled priesthood leaders. Policeman ray Haight reports that "during the entire morning session an intense, white light flooded the First Presidency . . . and made President Grant's clothes to appear to be white."
General conference sustains Joseph F. Smith (b. 1899) as Patriarch to Church, ending ten-year vacancy.
In 1942 there were 629 missionaries called to serve.
It was announced that due to World War II, the Relief Society general conference scheduled for April, which had been planned to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Relief Society, along with centennial celebrations in the stakes, would not be held. Rather, celebrations were to be held on the ward and branch level.
LDS President Heber J. Grant states in General Conference: "On October 3, 1942, LDS President Heber J. Grant, said in general conference: "I had always understood and known that my mother was sealed to the Prophet, and that Brigham Young had told my father that he would not marry my mother to him for eternity, because he had instructions from the Prophet that if anything happened to him before he was married to Rachel Ivins she must be sealed to him for eternity, that she belonged to him."
May Green Hinckley announced Primary presiding officers as "presidents."
May Green Hinckley, general president of the Primary Association, announced that the presiding officers of the Primary on all levels would henceforth be known as "presidents" rather than "superintendents."
Northern California mission is created
Relief Society general conference centennial not held due to war.
SS BRIGHAM YOUNG is launched as Liberty Ship for transporting troops, prisoners, and freight. Christened by Lucy Gates Bowen (his granddaughter) in Los Angeles Harbor. On May 22, 1943 SS JOSEPH SMITH is launched. Former survives World War II, but latter sinks in heavy seas on Jan. 11, 1944.
1942 Church Membership 917,715
The church begins using only older men for full-time missionary work during WWII.
The Church observed a special fast Sunday in conjunction with a national day of prayer called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The First Presidency announced that for the duration of World War II it would call only older men who had been ordained high priests or seventies on full-time missions.
The Tabernacle closes to the public during World War II.
The term "superintendents" is replaced with "presidents" for auxiliary leaders.
The USS Brigham Young, a Liberty class ship, was christened.
Bernard DeVoto writes "It is lugubriously true that the orthodox Mormon mind cannot tolerate any objective treatment of Mormon history whatever. . . . All Mormon actions have always been pure and sanitary; all criticism of them has always been evil and mendacious. Who is not for them is against them. . . . This is what I have sometimes called the Mormon Inferiority complex. Something of the sort is, of course, a part of all religious orthodoxy. Yet it is perfectly possible for any writer to handle any other religion in America objectively and be answered objectively in turn. It is not possible of the Mormons."
Deseret News begins reducing newspaper size due to wartime paper shortages.
Ordained Apostle by President Heber J. Grant.
Ezra Taft Benson stops in Salt Lake City to change trains en route to Colorado. David O. McKay tells him "that the President of the Church wanted to see me a few moments. . . . It was only a few minutes later that President Grant took my right hand in both of his and looked into the depths of my very soul and said: 'Brother Benson, with all my heart I congratulate you and pray God's blessings to attend you; you have been chosen as the youngest Apostle of the Church.'"
Ordained an Apostle by President Heber J. Grant.
Historian Dale L. Morgan writes to a friend: "My viewpoint about Mormon history is that of the sociologist, the psychologist, the political, economic, and social historian. I do not expect that the average Mormon will accept in its entirety the evaluation of Mormon history that I shall make, but I do expect that he will acknowledge my integrity within what he regards as the limitations of my understanding, or point of view. On such a basis we can get along very equably, and we may find that my interpretation of Mormon history will not, after all do such violence to Mormon ideas of that history."
In 1943 there were 261 missionaries called to serve.
Navajo-Zuni mission is created
Saturday Church Section of the Deseret News officially becomes the Church News.
Served as president of the Salt Lake Temple.
1943 Church Membership 937,050
The MIA completed a war service project to purchase aircraft rescue boats by purchasing war bonds. The project began May 11 and ended with 87 stakes raising a total of $3.1 million, enough to purchase 52 boats, which cost $60,000 each.
The Navajo-Zuni Mission was formed, the first mission designated only for Indians.
United States troops invaded Italy.
USS Joseph Smith launched in Richmond, California.
USS Joseph Smith, a Liberty class ship, was launched in Richmond, Calif. Ceremonies included a tribute to Joseph Smith and a description of the Church's part in the war effort.
A 12-page monthly Church News for the 70,000 LDS servicemen was inaugurated by the First Presidency in order to keep more closely in touch with the servicemen.
Allied forces invaded Europe at Normandy on "D-Day."
Allied forces, numbering 130,000 men, invaded Europe at Normandy, France, on "D-Day" breaking the Nazi stranglehold on the Continent and leading to the eventual surrender of Germany.
Central Pacific mission is created
Counselor J. Reuben Clark preaches that "in that inspired document, the Constitution, the Lord prescribed the way, the procedure by which the inspired framework of that Constitution could be changed. Whenever the Constitution is amended in that way, it will be an amendment that the Lord will approve."
Daniel DeLuce, war correspondent of Mormon parentage and heritage extending back to 1830's, receives Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. However, not until 1952 does self-acknowledged Mormon receive America's most prestigious publishing award. Two other Pulitzer recipients are non-LDS Utahns who often write about Mormons: Bernard Devoto in 1948 for ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI (history) and Wallace Stegner in 1972 for ANGLE OF REPOSE (fiction). In addition, Nobel Prize winner Haldor Laxness, non-Mormon, publishes novel PARADISE RECLAIMED in Iceland about LDS convert. Utah (specifically Spanish Fork) has largest number of Icelandic immigrants in United States.
Deseret News begins the LDS serviceman's edition of the Church News.
Genealogical Society name changed to include the Church name.
George E. Wahlen receives Congressional Medal of Honor from U. S. president Harry S Truman for service as Navy corpsman on Iwo Jima. Severely wounded on three days during the same week while treating wounded Marines, 19-year-old Wahlen refuses to obey direct orders to leave the injured and seek medical treatment himself.
Hugh B. Brown returns to England as president of the British mission and editor of the Millennial Star.
In 1944 there were 427 missionaries called to serve.
Memorial services held for the 100th anniversary of Joseph Smith's death.
Memorial services were held in each ward to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith. Special services were also held in Carthage Jail on June 27.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir participates in its first overseas broadcast to the British Isles.
NEW YORK TIMES announcement of a recital by Mormon pianist Grant Johannesen, first of forty such reports during next four decades.
1944 Church Membership 954,004
The Church announced the purchase of Spring Hill in Missouri, known in Church history as Adam-ondi-Ahman. (See D&C 116.). Final deeds for the purchase were dated June 27, 1944, the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The deed to the land was passed on to the Church by Eugene Johnson, whose family had been in possession of the property for a century.
The Church organized the Committee on Publications comprised of General Authorities to supervise the preparation and publication of all Church literature.
The name of the Genealogical Society of Utah was changed to the Genealogical Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Twelve-page Church News for seventy thousand LDS servicemen inaugurated.
U.S. Armed forces begin invasion of Guam. Paul H. Dunn later tells of his experience in the landing: "We jump in the water, the water's chest high. You gotta hold your rifle over your head. If the muzzle drops in the water-that's salt water-it would blow up when you fire. Did you ever try to run in water up to your chest, loaded down? You don't move very fast. And the enemy starts to pick you up. You're pushing with the butt of your rifle the dead bodies and wounded bodies of your friends and associates you've been training with. The coral is so sharp it cuts the boots off your feet and your feet are starting to bleed like mincemeat, and you're trying to get ashore. I was one of the first ashore that morning. And I dug my first foxhole with my fingernails and I crawled in it. And just as I crawled into that mucky hole an ambu gun opens up that shoots about 700 rounds a minute and it went down my right arm and took off my identification bracelet. And I rolled over and started to talk to Heavenly Father. And he answered me. And I have never been the same since." The division history says of the landing, "Fortunately little fire was received, as the enemy was occupied by the Marines now half a mile inland." Two soldiers who were on Dunn's landing craft affirm it was caught on a coral reef during the landing and did not land until the next day. One of them recalls a casualty that happened in connection with the landing: "One died shortly after we landed at Guam. It was an accident. He had laid his gun down on a jeep; it fell off and discharged."
Young Women organization celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary.
Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association celebrated its 75th anniversary. A plaque was dedicated by President Heber J. Grant and placed in the Lion House where the initial organization had taken place.
Also, the Tabernacle was opened to the general public for the first time since March 1942.
At a special meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve in the Salt Lake Temple, the First Presidency was reorganized with President George Albert Smith ordained and set apart as the eighth president of the Church. Presidents J. Reuben Clark Jr. and David O. McKay, counselors to President Grant, were called also as counselors to President Smith.
CHURCH NEWS reports that due to ward's lack of deacon-age boys, bishop has called young girls (ages 12 to 14) to do work of deacons such as collecting fast offerings.
Conference sustains George Albert Smith as church president with J. Reuben Clark and David O. McKay as counselors. He is "set apart" (not ordained) by Apostle George F. Richards, who is also a patriarch. Smith is only unmarried man to become LDS church president an only one who has no marital companion during his entire presidency. He remains unmarried widower last fourteen years of his life.
Became President of the Church.
First Counselor J. Reuben Clark says that "one of the reasons why the so-called 'Fundamentalists' had made such inroads among our young people was because we had failed to teach them the truth."
First Presidency decides to pay expenses of LDS conscientious objectors detained in camps by U.S. government during World War II.
Formal ceremonies of surrender, ending World War II — history's deadliest and most far-reaching conflict — were held aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japan had surrendered on Aug. 14 (V-J Day); Germany on May 8 (V-E Day).
Formal surrender ceremonies ended World War II.
Met with President Harry S. Truman and presented plans to help relieve the LDS Saints in Europe after World War II ended.
George Albert Smith ordained as eighth president of the Church.
George Albert Smith was set apart as the eighth Church president.
Germany surrenders.
Set apart as second counselor to President George Albert Smith.
Heber J. Grant, seventh president of the Church, dies.
Idaho Falls Idaho Temple was dedicated 23–25 September 1945 by George Albert Smith.
Improvement Era absorbs the Liahona-Elder's Journal.
In 1945 there were 400 missionaries called to serve.
Joined US Naval Reserves.
Milton R. Hunter is sustained as first Ph.D. (history) in First Council of Seventy, also first general authority with doctorate in humanities/social sciences. Other general authorities with Ph.D. in humanities/social sciences are G. Homer Durham (appointed in 1977), Jeffrey R. Holland (1989), Spencer J. Condie (1989), Richard P. Lindsay (1989), Dennis B. Neuenschwander (1991), Jay E. Jensen (1992), Lowell D. Wood (1992), Merrill J. Bateman (1992), Bruce D. Porter (1995), Richard B. Wirthlin (1996).
Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs on the nationwide radio broadcast for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's memorial.
President George Albert Smith met with U.S. President Harry S. Truman in the White House and presented the Church's plans to use its welfare facilities to help relieve the suffering of Latter-day Saints in Europe.
President Heber J. Grant died in Salt Lake City at age 88.
Seventy-five-year-old Herbert S. Salisbury, grandson of Joseph Smith's sister Catherine Smith Salisbury, states: "Catherine Smith Salisbury, told me she was present at home when her brother, Joseph Smith, came in nearly exhausted, carrying the package of gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. He was carrying the package clasped to his side with his left hand and arm, and his right hand was badly bruised from knocking down at least three men who had leaped at him from behind bushes or fences as he ran until out of breath. She said he entered the house running and threw himself on a couch panting from his extraordinary exertion. She told me Joseph allowed her to "heft" the package but not to see the gold plates, as the angel had forbidden him to show them at that period. She said they were very heavy."
Texas-Louisiana mission is created
1945 Church Membership 979,454
The first general, unrestricted conference of the Church in four years was held in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. (During World War II, general conferences were limited to general, stake, and ward priesthood leaders.)
The First Presidency authorized monthly priesthood and auxiliary leadership meetings if they could be held without violating government restrictions concerning use of gas and rubber.
The First Presidency began calling mission presidents for areas vacated during the war. This process continued through 1946. The sending of missionaries soon followed the appointment of mission presidents. By the end of 1946, 3,000 missionaries were in the field.
The Idaho Falls Idaho Temple was dedicated by George Albert Smith.
The Idaho Falls Temple was dedicated by President George Albert Smith.
Died in Salt Lake City, Utah.
World War II ends with the Japanese surrender.
Almost two years after Americans dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima, U.S. serviceman Boyd K. Packer performs first baptism of Japanese converts in Japan.
Benjamin E. Roberts, son of B. H. Roberts, addresses the Timpanogos Club at the Hotel Utah, discussing his father's studies on the Book of Mormon. He presents a manuscript by B. H. Roberts titled "A Parallel" which lists 18 parallels between the Book of Mormon and Ethan Smith's "VIEW OF THE HEBREWS" which was published in New York in 1823 and again in an enlarged edition in 1825. One of B. H. Roberts striking "parallels" is a passage from Ethan Smith's book that gives a capsule outline of the Book of Mormon: "It is highly probable that the more civilized part of the tribes of Israel, after they settled in America, became wholly separated from the hunting and savage tribes of their brethren: that the latter lost the knowledge of their having descended from the same family with themselves; that the more civilized part continued for many centuries; that tremendous wars were frequent between them and their savage brethren, till the former became extinct." B. H. Roberts adds: "Let it be remembered that the work from which this is quoted existed from five to seven years before the publication of the Book of Mormon. And the two editions of the work flooded the New England states and New York."
Brigham Young University begins radio broadcasts; KBYU joins the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.
BYU campus newspaper reports that professor of religion Richard Thomson, announced in a class that "during a vision last night, it was made known to me that 'you bet' is the anglicization of "hubet," the pure Adamic word for "you're welcome." Either the word has survived relatively intact for many millennia, or else it was revealed to the true Saints in the nineteenth century as part of the restoration of all things. Personally, I support the latter view." This announcement leads to the creation of the "Hubet Society of BYU" (HSBYU), which in turn leads to an attempt to create an Adamic 101 course. The entire movement is crushed when Jesse Wright, Provo Central Stake president, speaks at a BYU fireside and calls Professor Thomson, who lived in the stake, "insane," "an apostate and a heretic." Professor Thomson soon disappears from BYU.
Church reached the one million-member mark.
Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve, newly called as president of the European Mission, left New York for Europe to administer to the physical and spiritual needs of members there. He traveled throughout Europe for most of the year, visiting Saints who had been isolated by the war, distributing Church welfare supplies, and setting the branches of the Church in order.
Elder Ezra Taft Benson supervises the reopening of missionary work in Europe.
Utah Centennial celebrated.
Ezra Taft Benson left for Europe as a mission president.
Fawn Brodie writes her parents: " Thank you for sending the Hugh Nibley pamphlet No Ma'am, That's Not History. I had expected better things in this 'scholarly reply to Mrs. Brodie.' It is a flippant and shallow piece. He really did me a service by demonstrating the difference between his scholarship and mine. If that is the best a young Mormon historian can offer, then I am all the more certain that the death of B.H. Roberts meant the end of all that was truly scholarly and honest in orthodox Mormon historiography."
First Church sermon delivered by shortwave radio (President George Albert Smith to servicemen in Japan).
First Counselor J. Reuben Clark speaks concerning embezzlement by local bishop: "The Church could not use its funds for such a means as proposed to save any embarassment to the Church, and it could not and should not require the local brethren there to sacrifice unless their friendship for the bishop's family prompted them to do so on their own accord, and that he didn't worry about the resultant effect upon the Church if we did not attempt to cover up, but insisted upon justice."
First Presidency instructed the sacrament be passed to the presiding officer first.
First Presidency statement against compulsory military service ("conscription" or "the draft") during peace time. This is extensive version of Presidency's earlier views and of its efforts to persuade LDS congressmen to vote against peacetime draft.
First presidency tells LDS judge to be cautious about sending LDS "subnormals" to be sterilized in facility at American Fork, Utah.
First shipment of Welfare Plan foodstuffs and essential commodities arrives in Geneva, Switzerland for distribution to Mormons in war-devastated European cities. This aid totals eighty-five railroad freight cars. Eight months earlier First Presidency reestablished proselytizing missions in Europe.
Called as counselor in the East Millcreek Stake Presidency.
George Albert Smith visited Mexico as the first Church president to do so.
Appointed as chairman of the Church Indian Committee.
Hugh B. Brown released as British mission president and Millennial Star editor.
In 1946 there were 2,297 missionaries called to serve.
Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve writes to Belle S. Spafford, the Relief Society General President, and her counselors: "While the authorities of the Church have ruled that it is permissible, under certain conditions and with the approval of the priesthood, for sisters to wash and anoint other sisters, yet they feel that it is far better for us to follow the plan the Lord has given us and send for the Elders of the Church to come and administer to the sick and afflicted." This ends the practice of "washings and anointings" for women (usually preparatory to childbirth). A previous Relief Society President wrote of this ordinance, "this beautiful ordinance has always been with the Relief Society, and it is our earnest hope that we may continue to have that privilege, and up to the present time the Presidents of the Church have always allowed it to us.'
KSL begins broadcasting the first FM radio signal in Utah as KSL-FM.
Pacific (Administrative) mission is created
President George Albert Smith became the first president of the Church to visit Mexico. While in the country, he met with Manuel Avila Camacho, president of Mexico.
Reopened missionary work as European Mission president and supervised distribution of welfare supplies in Europe after World War II.
Swiss Austrian mission is created
1946 Church Membership 996,505
The Church began sending supplies to the Saints in Europe. This continued for the next several years.
The First Presidency instructed local Church leaders that in meetings where the sacrament is passed, it should be passed to the presiding officer first.
The Sacrament is now passed to the presiding authority first.
This translation of Mormons bok was done for Norway. Reference information: Anderson, Kai A. (June 1997), "In His Own Language", Liahona: 29,
Translation Department of the Church organized; Deseret Film Productions organized.
100th anniversary of the pioneer arrival celebrated; monument dedicated.
A caravan of wagon-canopied automobiles of the same number of people as the original pioneer company, arrived in Salt Lake City after following the Mormon Pioneer Trail.
Also in December, more than one million people visited Temple Square in one year for the first time.
An ambitious project to microfilm European records was started by the Genealogical Society.
Caravan of automobiles arrived in Salt Lake City following the Pioneer Trail.
Centennial of arrival of Mormon pioneers to Utah which is celebrated in special ceremonies outside United States by Austrian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, and Japanese Mormons according to reports in CHURCH NEWS.
Central Atlantic States mission is created
Church members celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Pioneers' arrival in Salt Lake Valley. The "This Is the Place" monument was dedicated by President George Albert Smith.
Church membership reaches 1,000,000.
CHURCH NEWS reports that Charles Davidson, now full-time missionary, has received contract from International Business Machines (IBM) to purchase invention for $5 million, payable over several years. Before his mission Davidson attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Westinghouse science scholarship.
Deseret Book Company's film Temple Square is the first motion picture of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Dutch members delivered seventy-five tons of potatoes to Germany.
Eldred G. Smith is ordained patriarch to the church, fourteen years after Quorum of Twelve recommended him. He is nuclear engineer for Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee which helped usher in atomic age at Hiroshima, Japan.
Fast day was set aside for the relief of those in need in Europe. About $210,000 was collected and then distributed to Europeans of all faiths by an agency not connected with the Church.
Finnish mission is created
First Presidency and apostles decide to allow faithful African-American Mormons to receive patriarchal blessings, and Patriarch Eldred G. Smith blesses black couple.
George Albert Smith announced the Church's responsibility to internationalize.
Graduated cum laude from University of Utah.
In 1947 there were 2,132 missionaries called to serve.
In commemoration of the advance party into the Salt Lake valley, the Sons of the Utah Pioneers complete a trek from Nauvoo to Salt Lake.
In Salt Lake City the "THIS IS THE PLACE" monument is unveiled and dedicated. Sculptor Mahonri Young says he has been deprived of $11,000 in payment for the monument. This brings a severe rebuke from George Q. Morris, who instructs him never to write the President again about this matter. Young never recovered the $11,000 and is bitter about it to the end of his life.
LDS president George Albert Smith offers official prayer for U.S. Senate, and CONGRESSIONAL RECORD publishes his invocation's full text. Exactly nineteen years later, May 20, 1966, first counselor Hugh B Brown does likewise. In 1974 Apostle (later LDS president) Gordon B. Hinckley opens U.S. Senate with prayer.
More than one million people visited Temple Square in one year.
On the trek westward Brigham Young "called the Captains of tens to his wagons and gave them a pretty severe lecture." He upbraids them for wasting meat and for wasting ammunition while hunting.
Membership reaches one million in the same year Utah marks a century since the wagons arrived, celebrated with the This Is the Place monument.
Palestine-Syrian mission is created
President David O. McKay reports 12,206 Church members serving in the armed forces.
President George Albert Smith announced that following the end of World War II, the Church had the responsibility to carry the gospel to the people at home and abroad, a missionary posture leading to the internationalization of the Church.
Quorum of Twelve letter to general Relief Society presidency states that women should seek blessings of health from priesthood leaders and not from other women. This officially ends more than a century of women's anointing and sealing blessings of health on other women and sometimes on men.
Salt Lake Tribune disposes of its KSL ownership, making the Church the majority owner.
Some 75 tons of potatoes, raised and donated by Dutch members, were delivered to needy families in Germany. A year later, the German Saints harvested their own crop of potatoes.
Spencer W. Kimball tells general conference: "When the Indians resisted our encroachments, we called them 'murderous redskins' and continued our relentless aggression." He reminds his listeners that "we continue to become fat in the prosperity for the assets we took from them." and concludes that Mormons have religious obligation toward Native American Indians: "to guarantee that they have the education, culture, security, and all other advantages and luxuries that we enjoy."
1947 Church Membership 1,016,170
The Church reached the 1 million-member mark. May — The vast project of revising early scripture translations and translating the scriptures into additional languages was begun by the Church offices.
The church reaches the 1 million member mark.
The Ontario, California DAILY REPORT sports section reports: "General Manager Russ Decker announced the release of pitchers Frank Umonyi and Paul Dunn yesterday."
This Is the Place monument unveiled by George Albert Smith during the Pioneer Centennial.
Uruguay mission is created
Central States Mission historical report notes: "It is also the desire of the Mission President Francis W. Brown to send each Elder into the country without purse or scrip to take the gospel to the many people in the Mission who have not had the opportunity of hearing the gospel for many years. We feel that much good will be accomplished through this, both for the people contacted and for the Elders."
CHURCH NEWS refers to three significant developments in LDS missionary work. First, report of success of two missionaries "tracting without purse or scrip" in Texas-Louisiana Mission. This practice is newsworthy because it has become so rare and is later prohibited by LDS headquarters. Second, E. Hyde Dunn, age nineteen, has left for special mission in which he volunteers to be construction missionary in Tonga. His voluntarism inspires headquarters to adopt this as regular program for South Pacific. Third, report that missionary Richard L. Anderson's teaching "plan" is now in use by all missionaries of Northwestern States Mission. Fourteen-lesson "Anderson Plan" is soon adopted by many LDS missions as non-memorized outline for teaching investigators. Anderson later becomes distinguished professor of religion at BYU.
Closed-circuit televisions first used to broadcast General Conference to other Temple Square buildings.
Deseret News becomes a daily paper and begins a 4-color Sunday rotogravure magazine supplement.
General Mark W. Clark presides at military memorial service at Garland, Utah, for four LDS brothers killed as servicemen during six-month period of World War II: Clyde, LeRoy, and twins Rolon and Rulon Borgstrom. American families are given small service-flag (with gold star in center) to display in window of home for son/daughter killed in war, and Borgstrom "Gold Star Mother" displays flag with four stars. Roman Catholic family suffers similar tragedy when five Sullivan brothers die on day their U.S. ship is torpedoed in World War II.
George Albert Smith’s announcement (later described as "a revelation") that mission presidents are to have counselors. Apostle Spencer W. Kimball later says revelation's text exists but is not to be published.
Hugh B. Brown speaks on the CBS Church of the Air series from the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
Hymns: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published to replace earlier hymnals.
In 1948 there were 2,161 missionaries called to serve.
It was announced that Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, would become a four-year college in the 1949-50 school year.
Japanese mission is created
Joseph Anderson, secretary to the First Presidency writes to historian Dale Morgan: "An experience running over several years has persuaded us of the unwisdom of giving access to our manuscript records to people writing books, because that same experience has shown that people writing such books are rarely qualified to appraise accurately what they read, and too frequently, whether conscious or unconsciously, they misrepresent what they find. Such manuscripts will therefore not be available for general inspection or use."
KBYU increases coverage to parts of Provo, Utah.
KSL receives a television license and construction permit from the FCC.
Mission presidents from around the world reported increasing numbers of baptisms. An expanded building program was started.
Mission presidents reported increased baptisms; building program expanded.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir's 1,000th weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast.