Apr 4, 1844 - Heber C. Kimball records in his journal, "I Heber C. Kimball recieved the washing of my feet, and was annointed by my wife Vilate fore my burial, that is my feet, head, Stomach. Even as Mary did Jesus, that she mite have a claim on Him in the Reserrection."

Apr 4, 1845 - Three bishops instruct the high priests of Nauvoo’s 5th Ward that if some members did not reform "they would at once discover themselves in the hands of Aunt Peggy and take leave of absence."

Apr 4, 1850 - Sarah Pratt writes to Bathsheba W. Smith about her husband, Apostle Orson Pratt's absence on missions and time with other wives: "Mr. Pratt left on the 9th of March for the Bluffs . . . he will return in June, or July, perhaps you may think this is a great trial for me, but I can assure it is no more of a trial, than if he were gone on other business, for I have long since made up my mind that it is no use to fret about those who do not fret about me, . . . "

Apr 4, 1860 - Brigham Young calls a special meeting of the First Presidency and Apostles to review Orson Pratt's recent public confession. Young is upset that Pratt has only apologized to Young without admitting that the doctrine he taught was wrong. Young says, "I want him to say that his views are contrary to truth and right; his sermon represents me to the world as a tyrant trammeling them to believe as I do right or wrong; it is my calling President to see that right doctrines are taught." Pratt replies "In regard to Adam being our Father and God . . . I frankly say, I have no confidence in it, . . . " Pratt's heretical view later becomes Church doctrine and Young's doctrine later becomes heretical.

Apr 4, 1880 - John Taylor and Twelve vote to accept as "Word of the Lord" a revelation on plural marriage received by Apostle Wilford Woodruff on Jan 26, 1880. Text is available but never canonized or officially published. Presiding Patriarch John Smith (b. 1832) is only general authority to oppose adoption of this revelation.

Apr 4, 1892 - A resolution is presented to general conference and passes unanimously to create "an institution of learning of high grade, to be officially named, 'The University of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints,' but to be commonly called and designated the 'Church University.'"

Apr 4, 1895 - Utah territorial convention (with Apostle John Henry Smith as president) drafts proposed state constitution which includes women’s suffrage. Convention completes proposed constitution on May 8, and Congress accepts it.

Apr 4, 1899 - Franklin D. Richards tells quarterly meeting of apostles that God "revealed to the Prophet true Masonry as we have it in our temples."

Apr 4, 1925 - Heber J. Grant warns general priesthood meeting against Ku Klux Klan, and remarks: "It is beyond my comprehension how people holding the priesthood will want to associate themselves with the Ku Klux Klan or any other [similar] organization."

Apr 4, 1931 - Heber J. Grant announces that church will give whatever assistance it can to aid criminal prosecution of polygamists.

Apr 4, 1941 - In general conference Apostle Joseph Fielding 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."

Apr 4, 1951 - George Albert Smith dies.

Apr 4, 1959 - Second counselor J. Reuben Clark tells general conference that "whenever you begin to make great expenditures of money, there is always some lack of wisdom, sometimes a lack of foresight, occasionally, oh so occasionally in this Church, a lack of integrity."

Apr 4, 1966 - An Indian student at BYU writes in the DAILY UNIVERSE: "This is where I found out that I was . . . inferior. In Phoenix, where I went to school last year, I didn't think of myself as an Indian. . . . .Here, there is a feeling that if you are an Indian you should keep your place."

Apr 4, 1981 - Conference sustains first Hispanic Latin American as general authority, First Quorum of Seventy's Angel Abrea.

Apr 4, 1982 - Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley tells general conference: "Of course, there are aberrations in our history. There are blemishes to be found, if searched for, in the lives of including our leaders past and present. But these are only incidental to the magnitude of their service and to the greatness of their contributions. Keep before you the big picture, for this cause is a large as all mankind and as broad as all eternity."

Apr 4, 1984 - R. Craig Smith, Mormon CIA agent, is arrested for espionage. Acquitted in 1986 his biographical exoneration is published next year in Utah by manager of Dale Carnegie Training Programs. Four years earlier the government convicted first CIA agent, non-LDS, to be arrested for espionage.

Apr 4, 1987 - Conference sustains Douglas J. Martin of New Zealand as first general authority from South Pacific. Also John R. Lasater is first Vietnam War veteran and highest-ranking veteran (general) to become general authority.
First Counselor Gordon B Hinckley tells priesthood session of conference that "marriage should not be viewed as a therapeutic step to solve problems such as homosexual inclinations of practices..." This reverses decades-long policy formulated by Spencer W. Kimball.

Apr 4, 1988 - Arizona’s state senate convicts Governor Evan Mecham of "high crimes and misdemeanors," thus removing him from office. Mecham is first Mormon office-holder to be impeached (February 1988), and first to be convicted by senate and constitutionally removed from office. Every LDS legislator (all Republicans) voted against his impeachment; there were no Mormons in Arizona senate at this time.
BYU's College Republicans invite Mecham to speak on their campus but it is denied by the faculty advisor because of BYU's speaker policy which states: "The speaker must not in his personal life (as reflected in the news media and common understanding of the public) have committed acts of immorality, dishonesty, or other conduct that would make it inappropriate for the Church Educational System to feature him as a speaker and thus as a person whose life and advice are an appropriate model for students in an educational system with our ideals."

April 4,1992 - Apostle Richard G Scott tells general conference that LDS women should avoid "morbid probing into details of past acts, long buried and mercifully forgotten," and that "the Lord may prompt a victim to recognize a degree of responsibility for abuse."
Among his concluding remarks: "Remember, false accusation is also a sin," and 'bury the past." Unspoken background to his remarks is that in recent years current stake presidents and temple workers have been accused of child abuse by their now adult children. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reports that suicide prevention lines are swamped with telephone calls by women in days after Scott's remarks.

Correction: 1895 should be March 4.