Timeline: Key points in the life of Joseph Smith
Portrait of Joseph Smith Jr.
Church records state Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in the spring of 1820. This event is known as the First Vision.
Carthage jail in Carthage, Illinois, is the site where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred on June 27, 1844.
E.B. Grandin Press Building in Palmyra, New York, where the Book of Mormon was first published.
The following are key events in the life of Joseph Smith and the restoration period of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to church historical records.
Dec. 23, 1805 — Joseph Smith born to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith in Sharon, Vermont.
1813 — Joseph Smith receives a pioneering surgery to remove a portion of a bone is his leg after typhoid fever left him with a bone infection.
1816 — The Smith family moves to Palmyra New York.
Early Spring — 1820 — Joseph Smith’s First Vision is recorded as happening in a grove of trees near his home in the state of New York.
Sept. 21-22, 1823 — Joseph Smith is visited by the angel Moroni and told of the Book of Mormon record, according to records. Joseph views the gold plates buried in a nearby hill. Joseph Smith obtains the gold plates from Moroni at the Hill Cumorah on Sept. 22.
Nov. 19, 1823 — Joseph Smith’s brother Alvin dies.
March 20, 1826 — Joseph Smith is tried and acquitted on charges of being a disorderly person.
Jan. 18, 1827 — Joseph Smith marries Emma Hale.
Dec. 1827 — Joseph and Emma Smith move from Manchester, New York to Harmony, Pennsylvania to live with Emma Smith’s parents after they experience persecution in New York.
June 15, 1828 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s first child, a son named Alvin is born and dies within hours.
May 15, 1829 — John the Baptist confers the Aaronic Priesthood on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in Harmony, Pennsylvania, church records state.
May 1829 — Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receive the Melchizedek Priesthood from Peter, James, and John near the Susquehanna River between Harmony, Pennsylvania, and Colesville, New York.
June 1829 — Translation of the Book of Mormon completed. The Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses shown the gold plates.
March 26, 1830 — First printed copies of the Book of Mormon available in Palmyra, New York.
April 6, 1830 — The church is officially organized in Fayette Township, New York.
June 28, 1830 — Joseph Smith is arrested on false charges of disorderly conduct.
September-October 1930 — The first missionaries are called under the direction of Joseph Smith.
December 1830 to January 1831 — The Saints are commanded to gather in Ohio.
April 30, 1831 — Emma Smith gives birth prematurely to twins Louisa and Thaddeus. They live only hours.
May 9, 1831 — Joseph and Emma Smith adopt newborn twins Joseph and Julia Murdock whose mother died in childbirth.
July 20, 1831 — The site for the city of Zion (the New Jerusalem) in Independence, Missouri, is revealed to Joseph Smith.
Nov. 1, 1831 — “The Book of Commandments” is published. It contains the revelations received by Joseph Smith to that point.
Jan. 25, 1832 — Joseph Smith is officially sustained as president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
March 24, 1832 — Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon taken by a mob in the night, tarred and feathered.
March 29, 1832 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s adopted son Joseph dies after exposure to cold the night Joseph Smith and Rigdon were tarred and feathered.
Nov. 6, 1832 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son Joseph Smith III born.
Feb. 27, 1833 — Joseph Smith receives revelation on the Word of Wisdom.
Nov. 7, 1833 — Saints begin fleeing from mobs in Jackson County, Missouri, across the Missouri River and into Clay County, Missouri.
May 5, 1834 — Joseph Smith leaves Kirtland, Ohio, for Missouri as the leader of Zion’s Camp to bring relief to Saints expelled from Jackson County.
Feb. 14, 1835 — The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is organized in Kirtland, Ohio.
Aug. 17, 1835 — The Doctrine and Covenants accepted as a standard work of the church in Kirtland, Ohio.
March 28, 1836 — The Kirtland Temple dedicated.
April 3, 1836 — Church history records state Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple. Moses, Elias and Elijah appeared and conveyed priesthood keys.
June 20, 1836 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son Frederick Granger Williams Smith is born in Kirtland, Ohio.
January 1838 — Joseph Smith and his family moves from Ohio to Missouri.
June 2, 1838 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son Alexander Hale Smith is born in Far West, Missouri.
Oct. 27, 1838 — Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issues the “extermination order” allowing residents to push out members of the church under threat of death.
Oct. 30, 1838 — Missouri mobs attack residents in Haun’s Mill. The attack resulted in the deaths of 17 people.
April 26, 1838 — Name of the Church specified by revelation.
Dec. 1, 1838 — April 16, 1839 — The Prophet Joseph Smith and others imprisoned at Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri.
Nov. 29, 1839 — Joseph Smith meets with U.S. president Martin Van Buren seeking redress for Missouri grievances.
1839 — Joseph Smith and his family move from Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois.
June 13, 1840- Joseph and Emma Smith’s son Don Carlos Smith is born in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Aug. 15, 1840 — Baptism for the dead publicly announced by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Sept. 14, 1840 — Joseph Smith, Sr. dies in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Aug. 7, 1841 — Joseph Smith’s brother Don Carlos dies in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Aug. 15, 1841 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son Don Carlos dies at 14 months old in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Feb. 6, 1842 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son dies at birth. The son was not named.
March 17, 1842 — Female Relief Society organized in Nauvoo, Illinois.
May 4, 1842 — First full temple endowments given in Nauvoo, Illinois.
May 19, 1842 — Joseph Smith is elected as the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois.
May 28, 1843 — Joseph and Emma Smith are sealed for time and eternity.
July 12, 1843 — Revelation on plural wives and celestial marriages is recorded by Joseph Smith.
May 17, 1844 — Joseph Smith is nominated as a U.S. presidential candidate.
June 24, 1844 — Joseph Smith with his brother Hyrum voluntarily surrenders to a constable in Carthage, Illinois on charges of inciting a riot.
June 27, 1844 — Joseph and Hyrum Smith martyred at Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois.
June 29, 1844 — Joseph and Hyrum Smith are buried in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Nov. 17, 1844 — Joseph and Emma Smith’s son David Hyrum Smith is born.
Information from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historic records.