• June 9, 1830 — First convened with 27 members at the Peter Whitmer farmhouse in Fayette, N.Y., where the church had been formally organized two months earlier.
• Oct. 6, 1867 — First conference to be convened in the newly completed Tabernacle on Temple Square began.
• April 6, 1880 — A jubilee year celebration was inaugurated, marking 50 years of general conference. Charitable actions, reminiscent of Old Testament jubilee celebrations, included rescinding half the debt owed to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Co., distribution of cows and sheep among the needy and advice to the Saints to forgive the worthy poor of their debts.
• Oct. 6, 1890 — The "Manifesto" was unanimously accepted by vote in a general conference of the church, formally ending the practice of plural marriage and paving the way for Utah statehood five years later.
• April 1894 — President Wilford Woodruff announced in general conference that he had received a revelation ending the "law of adoption," the custom of being sealed in the temple to prominent church leaders rather than direct ancestors.
• April 1919 — General conference was postponed due to the nationwide influenza epidemic and was convened instead June 1-3.
• Oct. 3, 1924 — The first local radio broadcast of general conference began on KSL, the church-owned station. Coverage was expanded into Idaho in 1941.
• April 6, 1930 — Centennial celebration of the church's organization was observed during general conference. B.H. Roberts prepared his "Comprehensive History of the Church" as a centennial memorial.
• April 4-6, 1942 — Because of wartime restrictions on travel, general conference was closed to general church membership and confined to general authorities and stake presidencies. On April 5, the First Presidency 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.
• October 1949 — Television, invented by LDS Church member Philo T. Farnsworth, was first used to broadcast general conference on KSL-TV.
• April 5, 1952 — The church began carrying the priesthood session of general conference by direct telephone wire to buildings beyond Temple Square.
• October 1953 — General conference was broadcast via television for the first time outside the Intermountain area.
• October 1957 — General conference was canceled due to a flu epidemic.
• April 1967 — For the first time, seven Mexican television and radio stations carried a session of general conference.
• April 7, 1973 — Creation of the Welfare Services Department was announced in general conference.
• Oct. 3, 1975 — President Spencer W. Kimball announced organization of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and three members of the quorum were sustained by church members.
• April 1976 — Members accepted Joseph Smith's Vision of the Celestial Kingdom and Joseph F. Smith's vision of the Redemption of the Dead for addition to the Pearl of Great Price, a volume of LDS scripture.
• April 6, 1980 — To celebrate the church's 150th anniversary, President Spencer W. Kimball conducted part of general conference from the newly restored Peter Whitmer farmhouse in Fayette, N.Y. The proceedings were linked with the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City via satellite, the first time a satellite was used for transmitting sessions of the conference.
• April 1, 1982 — It was announced during general conference that church membership had reached the 5 million member mark.
• Oct. 3, 1982 — Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve announced that a subtitle was being added to the Book of Mormon, "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."
• Oct. 5, 1986 — The First Presidency issued a statement opposing the legalization of gambling and government sponsorship of lotteries.
• April 1-2, 1989 — The Second Quorum of the Seventy was created.
• April 6, 1996 — President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that a new assembly hall four times the size of the Tabernacle would be built. It would later be named the Conference Center.
• April 1997 — Organization of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Quorums of the Seventy was announced.
• October 1997 — President Hinckley announced plans to construct small temples in remote areas of the church.
• April 2000 — The first sessions of general conference to be convened in the new Conference Center in Salt Lake City are held.
