2005: Year in review
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
During 2005, the Church celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the 175th anniversary of the Church. Here are other news briefs of Church-related events from the year:
JANUARY
Jan. 1: In a partnership effort with Islamic Relief Worldwide, the Church sent more than 70 tons of medical supplies, hygiene kits, clothing and shoes by chartered cargo plane to Indonesia to aid tsunami victims. Later, two full cargo containers of clothing from the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City, six additional containers of first aid, medical supplies and relief items, and a shipment of Atmit were sent to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Jan. 3: Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a grandson of the late Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve, was inaugurated as the 16th governor of Utah in a ceremonial program that included the singing of 150 members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a prayer of benediction by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
Jan. 3-10: In the wake of the devastating tsunami disaster that struck southern Asia Dec. 26, 2004, Bishop Richard C. Edgley, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, led a team in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to assess the Church's immediate humanitarian response to the disaster.
Jan. 8: The Church News reported that the Mozambique Maputo Mission, the 339th mission of the Church, was organized in a division of the South Africa Johannesburg Mission.
Jan. 10-11: Twenty-two member homes in the St. George, Utah, area collapsed into the flooding waters of the Santa Clara River and another 76 were damaged.
Jan. 25: The Church airlifted eight pallets of food and medical supplies to Guyana following severe flooding of the South American country.
Jan. 26: The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination of Church member and former governor of Utah Michael O. Leavitt as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jan. 29: A recently adopted initiative of inclusion, accepted unanimously by the Chilean Senate, gave the Church full recognition in Chile, enabling it to be treated as an equal, accepted and mainstream religion in the country.
FEBRUARY
Feb. 4: Members of the First Presidency presented a check for $1 million to Marsha J. Evans, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, for the Measles Initiative, a Red Cross vaccination program to help fight measles in Africa. The donation was the second part of a $3 million, three-year commitment by the Church. In recognition of the Church's support, the Red Cross presented the Church with its highest honor for donors, the American Red Cross Circle of Humanitarians award.
Feb. 5: During a two-day concert tour to Southern California, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performed at the prestigious American Choral Directors Association convention in Los Angeles, Calif. The choir performed in San Diego's Cox Arena on Feb. 4
Feb. 5: As part of the downtown Salt Lake City redevelopment project, the Church plans to construct 900 new housing units, including some housing for students of LDS Business College and BYU Salt Lake Center, the Church News reported. Both schools are set to open at the Triad Center, located two blocks west of Temple Square, by 2006.
Feb. 12: Continuing the practice of speaking to large congregations by satellite from Salt Lake City, President Hinckley addressed thousands of members who gathered for stake conferences in meetinghouses across Australia.
Feb. 18: Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated the Thomas E. Ricks Building and Gardens at BYU-Idaho, in honor of the man who established Bannock Stake Academy in 1888, which later became Ricks College, and founded Rexburg, Idaho, where the school is located.
Feb. 24-March 1: President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, and Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve visited areas in Indonesia ravaged by tsunamis that were triggered by an earthquake off its coast on Dec. 26.
Feb. 26: At a meeting on the campus of Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, President Hinckley addressed 5,700 members from four southwestern Utah stakes that were most severely affected by the Jan. 10-11 flooding of the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers.
Feb. 26: More than 7,500 Guatemalan Church members participated at the invitation of Guatemala's minister of education in a "Day of the School" service project, the Church News reported. Church members contributed more than 40,000 work hours to the project.
MARCH
March 11: President Hinckley and his counselors, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, had "a conversation with the media," described by the Church president as "a rather historic occasion" to note the 10th anniversary of their administration as the First Presidency.
March 13: In a satellite telecast from Salt Lake City, President Hinckley addressed 95,000 Church members in the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tahiti.
March 13: The first meetinghouse of the Church in Daviess County, Mo. — an area rich in early Church history — was dedicated in Gallatin, Mo. It is an area referred to in scripture, and in the vicinity of Adam-ondi-Ahman, "where Adam shall come to visit his people" (D&C 116:1).
March 26: President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, addressed the young women of the Church at the General Young Women Meeting. Also speaking at the satellite broadcast was the Young Women general presidency.
APRIL
April 2: Twelve new General Authorities were sustained in general conference. Called to the First Quorum of the Seventy were Benjamin De Hoyos, David F. Evans, Richard G. Hinckley, Paul E. Koelliker, C. Scott Grow, Paul V. Johnson, Paul B. Pieper, and Ulisses Soares. Called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy were Won Yong Ko, Wolfgang H. Paul, Lowell M. Snow and Paul K. Sybrowsky. Also sustained at conference were 38 new Area Seventies, with 37 being released. In addition, a new Primary general presidency was sustained, with Cheryl Clark Lant as president, and Margaret Swensen Lifferth and Vicki Fujii Matsumori as first and second counselors, respectively.
April 14: BYU announced the creation of three $5 million academic chairs named in honor of donor Mary Lou Fulton of Tempe, Ariz., one in each of three colleges: Family, Home and Social Sciences; Health and Human Performance; and Humanities.
April 15: Church member Michael K. Young was formally inaugurated as the 14th president of the University of Utah, after serving as president of the university since August 2004.
April 19: The First Presidency announced in a letter to priesthood leaders that two new quorums of the Seventy had been created. The Seventh Quorum was organized from a division of the Fourth Quorum and the Eighth Quorum was created by dividing the Third Quorum. A total of 195 Area Authorities are members of the Third through Eighth quorums.
April 20: The First Presidency announced that plans are being finalized for a new five-story Church History Library in Salt Lake City, with construction to begin later in 2005.
April 21: Some 50,000 Church members participated in the Church's "Hands Helping to Improve Public Schools" project on Brazil's national holiday, cleaning, painting, refurbishing, weeding and making minor improvements to 200 schools across the country.
April 24: President Hinckley, in a satellite address from Salt Lake City, spoke to members of the Church from 27 stakes and 11 districts meeting in stake conferences in southern Philippines.
April 28-29: More than 17,000 women participated in the 2005 BYU Women's Conference.
April 30: In anticipation of the dedication of the Aba Nigeria Temple, Aug. 7, members in the Nsit Ubium Nigeria Stake gathered at the original site where, in 1979, 184 members of the Church in Nigeria were baptized within a year after the 1978 priesthood revelation. President Stanford B. Owen presided over the event that included the unveiling and dedication of a monument to those early African member pioneers who prepared the way for the growth of the Church in West Africa.
MAY
May 6-7: An international academic conference, commemorating the bicentennial year of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was held at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Titled "The Worlds of Joseph Smith," the conference included 17 presenters and respondents, about evenly balanced between Church members and others, as well as an address by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve.
May 6: Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve met with the president of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer, in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, discussing the Church in Austria and the status of religion in Europe.
May 15: Speaking from Salt Lake City via satellite to 133,000 members from 41 stakes who gathered in 223 chapels in five states in the Ohio Valley, President Hinckley said that members in the Midwestern United States live in areas where great truths of the gospel were revealed to Joseph Smith.
May 15: Tens of thousands of members gathered in stake conferences throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland to hear counsel from President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, and President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, in a satellite broadcast that originated in the Preston England Stake.
May 21: A cast of some 4,300 young adults, youth and Primary children from the San Antonio Texas Temple District sang, danced and marched in the "Heart of Texas Youth Jubilee," attended by an estimated 20,000 spectators. Prior to the Jubilee, President Hinckley, Elder M. Russell Ballard and other General Authorities addressed, at a member meeting, the many thousands who had gathered in the Alamodome football stadium.
May 22: President Hinckley in four sessions dedicated the San Antonio Texas Temple, the Church's 120th temple and the fourth in Texas.
May 22: In a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, and President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, addressed members in six New England states and parts of three other states.
JUNE
June 11: New missions have been created in Ghana and Uganda, on the opposite sides of Africa, the Church News reported. The two new missions, the 340th and 341st in the Church, became operational July 1.
June 13: A 6-foot 5-inch bronze statue of Samuel Smith, the Church's first ordained missionary of this dispensation, was unveiled in services in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. The statue, by sculptor Dee Jay Bawden, was later placed in the main corridor of the Provo Missionary Center.
June 17: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square began a tour of the Pacific Northwest, performing concerts in nine cities in five states over a 17-day period, including Pocatello and Boise, Idaho; Spokane and Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento Calif., and Reno, Nev.
June 21: "Go forward, nothing doubting," President Hinckley told 130 new mission presidents and their wives during the weeklong mission presidents seminar at the Provo Missionary Training Center. For the first time, President Hinckley's annual message to the mission presidents was telecast by satellite to 211 mission presidents and their wives around the world.
June 23: At a reception in the Church Administration Building, President Hinckley was honored on his 95th birthday by General Authority colleagues, members of his family and employees of the offices of the First Presidency. Three days earlier, on June 20, he met with members of the news media in the administration building.
June 25: A memorial to the early Mormon pioneers from Iceland was rededicated in Spanish Fork, Utah, by President Hinckley in a ceremony attended by Iceland's president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.
JULY
July 3: The first meetinghouse in the southeastern African nation of Malawi, a country of 12 million people, was dedicated in the Mandala Township in the city of Blantyre by President Joseph Jenkins of the Zimbabwe Harare Mission.
July 6: The Church's Humanitarian Services and Deseret Book Company teamed up to ship 6,500 new books, with a retail value of $60,000, to Ghana and Fiji, the first of an ongoing partnership to provide books to homes, schools and libraries in developing areas of the world.
July 7: Deadly terrorists' attacks in London, England, left 52 people dead and 700 injured as bombs exploded on three underground subway trains and on one of the city's double-decker buses. Following the coordinated attacks, the Church donated miered that depicts, in story and song, the establishment and development of Nauvoo, from 1839 to 1846.
July 16: Some 100,000 youth participated in a "Day of Celebration" in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, as part of a worldwide commemoration honoring the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the 175th anniversary of the organization of the Church.
July 16-17: Hundreds of Church members converged on Florida's Panhandle and in south Alabama to help with cleaning and fixing up following the devastation left by Hurricane Dennis, which hit the southeastern U.S. July 10 with winds up to 120 miles an hour.
July 22: President Hinckley's 95th birthday was commemorated with a gigantic celebration in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City that featured in a 90-minute concert a sampling of the diverse musical excellence to be found among Latter-day Saints.
July 30: The 50th anniversary of the dedication of Korea for the preaching of the gospel was celebrated in music and dance as about 1,500 performers from throughout South Korea put on a three-hour "parade of talent" at Olympic Park in Seoul.
July 30: The Church News announced that the First Presidency Message in the August 2005 Liahona and Ensign extends an invitation to all members to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. "Those who read the Book of Mormon will be blessed with an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a greater resolve to obey His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God," the First Presidency stated.
July 31: President Hinckley had a busy day, first speaking to 200 members at the airport at Vladivostok, Russia, his first stop on a seven-nation tour of Asia and Africa, and then later in the day speaking at a regional conference in Seoul, Korea, that drew nearly 10,000 members.
July 31: President Thomas S. Monson, spoke to some 5,000 LDS Scouts and their leaders at an open-air sacrament meeting at the National Scout Jamboree at Ft. A.P. Hill, Va.
AUGUST
Aug. 6: About 55,000 people attended three performances of a youth spectacular, held in the Marriott Center on the BYU campus, which honored in song, drama and dance the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Aug. 6: President Hinckley held a press conference in Aba, Nigeria, which included two national Nigerian news organizations, and said that during the last five years the Church had sent $77.1 million worth of aid to Africa. Also during the day, he addressed some 1,500 Nigerian Church members at a member meeting in the new Aba Nigeria Stake Center, and then attended a cultural event, "A Day of Rejoicing" that featured 1,500 children and youth from five stakes in and around Aba.
Aug. 7: President Hinckley dedicated in four sessions the Aba Nigeria Temple, the second temple in west Africa and the Church's 121st temple.
Aug. 9: After traveling 24,995 miles on a tour of Asia and Africa, President Hinckley returned home. On his around-the-world, seven-nation, nine-day tour, he spoke to members in Vladivostok, Russia, and Seoul, Korea, on July 31 (see entry in July), followed by visits in Taipei, Taiwan; Hong Kong, China; Delhi, India; Nairobi, Kenya; and Aba, Nigeria, during the first week in August.
Aug. 10: In a partnership between the Church and Catholic Relief Services, the Church donated 40 tons of Atmit, an easily digestible porridge, to feed as many as 7,000 malnourished children in the north-central African nation of Niger.
Aug. 15-19: The life of the Prophet Joseph Smith was the focus of nearly 100 presentations at the annual BYU Campus Education Week, attended by more than 22,000 Church members from all 50 states and 12 other countries. Some of the presentations were later broadcast over the Church satellite system to Europe, South Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America, Asia and the Pacific.
Aug. 27: The day before the Newport Beach California Temple was dedicated, 4,000 teens participated in a cultural event in the Arrowhead Pond Arena in Anaheim, Calif. Sandwiched between two performances of the temple youth celebration, themed "A Sacred Place," President Hinckley and his second counselor, President James E. Faust, and others addressed thousands of members from 16 stakes in Orange County, Calif., in a member meeting.
Aug. 28: The Newport Beach California Temple, the sixth temple in California and the 122nd temple in the Church, was dedicated by President Hinckley in four sessions.
Aug. 29: Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 storm, slammed into Mississippi and Louisiana with winds of 145 mph, generating a 28-foot surge of water, then moved north, leaving broad destruction in its wake. As the hurricane came ashore, a levee was breached in New Orleans, La., causing massive flooding with 80 percent of the city under 14 feet of water. Within a matter of hours, 14 semi-trucks from the Church, mobilized before the storm's landfall and loaded with emergency supplies, reached the disaster zone. A contingent of Church leaders, led by President Boyd K. Packer, toured areas of destruction. Within the first two weeks after the hurricane struck, the Church had sent into the affected areas 140 semi-trucks carrying 5.6 million pounds, or 2,800 tons, of commodities and supplies. During that same period, LDS volunteers donated 73,000 hours in helping thousands of Church members and people of other faiths.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 3: President Hinckley, President Thomas S. Monson and other visiting Church officials were given a colorful glimpse of Polynesia at a cultural celebration in Apia, Samoa, the evening before the rebuilt Apia Samoa Temple was dedicated. Prior to the cultural celebration, in a member meeting held in the stadium, President Hinckley and President Monson spoke.
Sept. 4: Just a little more than two years after the original Apia Samoa Temple was destroyed by fire on July 9, 2003, President Hinckley dedicated the rebuilt temple in two sessions.
Sept. 6: Relief Society Gen. Pres. Bonnie D. Parkin, on an eight-day trip to Mozambique Sept. 1-8, helped with measles vaccinations of children in villages near Maputo, the nation's capital.
Sept. 18: Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Presidency of the Seventy encouraged thousands of Latino Church members at a Spanish-language devotional held in the Conference Center to share the gospel with their fellow Latino friends and neighbors by delivering the message of the Restoration.
Sept. 20: President Hinckley dedicated the 280,000-square-foot Joseph F. Smith Building on the BYU campus, the new home of the university's two largest colleges, the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences and the College of Humanities.
Sept. 24: Women of the Church are "instruments in the hands of God," President James E. Faust declared as he spoke at the annual General Relief Society Meeting. The meeting also featured addresses by the general Relief Society presidency and a short video presentation narrated by President Hinckley.
Sept. 24: Following on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, a Category 3 storm, hit along the Texas-Louisiana coastal areas with 100-mph winds, leaving a path of destruction between Beaumont, Texas, and Jennings, La., with damages estimated at $6 billion. The Church, in its initial relief effort, sent 10 semi-trucks and three delivery trucks, filled with food and emergency equipment and supplies.
OCTOBER
Oct. 1: President Hinckley in the first session of general conference indicated that the Church has procured — through the generosity of developers — property for two future temple sites. He then announced the construction of a new temple on one of those properties, located in the southwest quadrant of the Salt Lake Valley in the Daybreak development. During the Saturday afternoon session of conference 11 members of the Seventy were granted emeritus status or were released. Given emeritus status were five members of the First Quorum of the Seventy: Elders John H. Groberg, F. Melvin Hammond, Harold G. Hillam, F. Burton Howard and David E. Sorensen. Released as General Authorities were six members of the Second Quorum of the Seventy: Elders Darwin B. Christenson, Adhemar Damiani, H. Aldridge Gillespie, Stephen B. Oveson, Ned B. Roueche and Dennis E. Simmons.
Oct. 4: Hurricane Stan devastated many areas in southern Mexico, destroying several LDS homes; hundreds of Latter-day Saints served others.
Oct. 7: The First Presidency broke ground for a state-of-the-art Church History Library in Salt Lake City at a site that had been used as a parking lot at the northeast corner of Main and North Temple streets, east of the Conference Center.
Oct. 8: A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan and India. Ten days later, 80 tons of Church supplies reached Pakistan. The Church also donated $100,000 to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund in India.
Oct. 8: More than 500 Guatemalans, including one Church member, were killed amidst more than 400 mud slides and severe flooding spawned by Hurricane Stan.
Oct. 11: President Hinckley installed Kim B. Clark, former dean of the Harvard Business School and Church member, as the 15th president of BYU Idaho.
Oct. 15: LDS Latinos gathered at the Church's Family History Library for the Eighth Annual Hispanic Family History Conference.
Oct. 15: Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, dedicated a monument to honor the Prophet Joseph Smith in Topsfield, Mass., on the site of the Smith family homestead.
Oct. 16-23: President Thomas S. Monson participated in celebratory events for the 50th anniversary of Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He addressed the school's devotional assembly Oct. 21 and a multi-stake conference Oct. 23.
Oct. 20: Ground was broken for the Panama City Panama Temple.
Oct. 24: Hurricane Wilma hit the Fort Myers, Fla., and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, destroying homes and ushering in the need for more Church aid during the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record.
Oct. 28: Enterprise Mentors International celebrated its 15th anniversary by honoring President Hinckley and the Church for their support and contributions to the micro-credit organization.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 6: President Thomas S. Monson addressed college-age young adults during a worldwide Church Educational System fireside broadcast.
Nov. 19: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir presented a benefit concert for the National Sports Center for the Disabled in the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo.
Nov. 21-26: The Church sent blankets and tents, in addition to 400 tons of relief supplies already shipped, to aid earthquake victims in Pakistan, facing a winter without adequate shelter.
DECEMBER
Dec. 2: The Colombian Congress honored the Church for its humanitarian service that has bettered the lives of Colombians in need.
Dec. 3: LDS Family Services and Commissioner Fred Riley received "Adoption Hall of Fame" awards from the National Council for Adoption.
Dec. 4: During the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, held in the Church's Conference Center, President Hinckley declared that more people are now reading the Book of Mormon than at any other time in history. President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust also spoke during the meeting, which was broadcast worldwide via satellite.
Dec. 4: A new five-story meetinghouse was dedicated in Harlem, N.Y., the Church's first in the city.
Dec. 17: A new Church-produced film on the life of Joseph Smith and his prophetic role in the Restoration began showing in the Legacy Theater of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City.
Dec. 23: Culminating the yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, the Church held a fireside broadcast from Sharon, Vt., and the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Speakers were the First Presidency and Elder M. Russell Ballard.
