1843 - Officially recorded date of Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith having a revelation about celestial or polygamous marriages.
1862 - U.S. Congress passes a bill prohibiting polygamy, which the Mormons said was unconstitutional because it interfered with their right to practise their religion (From The Polygamists)
Sept. 1887 - Card and two others go to Canada looking for a site to establish a community in exile. They find Lee's Creek, later to be called Cardston.
1887 - Edmunds-Tucker bill is introduced and debated. It would authorize the government to confiscate all the LDS property (except chapels) worth in excess of $50,000 and dissolve the church as a corporate entity. It was approved in 1890 and found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, forcing Wilford Woodruff's hand.
1888 - Charles O. Card, who is wanted for polygamy in the United States, goes with two others to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald asking for special dispensation to bring their plural wives and other families to Canada. Macdonald says no and the next year brings in legislation outlawing polygamy.
1890 - Wilford Woodruff, the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounces the practise of polygamy.
1946 - Winston Blackmore's uncle, Harold Blackmore, buys property outside Creston, B.C. and establishes the community that will come to be called Bountiful. Blackmore is affiliated with the fundamentalist Mormons living along the Utah-Arizona border in a community called Short Creek.
Spring 1961 - Winston Blackmore's father, Ray, takes control of Bountiful away from Harold.
October 1991 - RCMP conclude a 13-month investigation and recommend charges be laid against Winston Blackmore and Dalmon Oler for practicing polygamy.
June 1992- Attorney General Colin Gabelman decides not to lay charges after getting legal opinions that the polygamy section of the Criminal Code would not withstand a Charter challenge.
2002 - Winston Blackmore is excommunicated by Warren Jeffs, who succeeded his father, Rulon, as the prophet of the FLDS. Jim Oler is appointed bishop.
Spring 2004 - Debbie Palmer, who was the complainant in the late 1990s, along with several others files a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
June 14, 2004 - After receiving a letter from someone in Bountiful alleging abuse, B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant asks RCMP to investigate,
April 2005 - Winston Blackmore holds a polygamy summit in Creston. At the polygamy summit in April, WB says that his son married a 14-year-old. He also admits that he has married "several under-aged girls".
Summer 2005 - Wally Oppal is appointed attorney general of British Columbia and describes the situation in Bountiful as "intolerable."
FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs is indicted by an Arizona grand jury along with seven others on various charges of sexual conduct with minors.
Aug. 16, 2005 - Justice Minister Irwin Cotler re-affirms his opinion that the polygamy law is constitutional, but asks justice officials to see if there are any amendments that might be made to strengthen it.
May 5, 2006 - FBI puts Warren Jeffs on its 10 Most Wanted list.
Aug. 25, 2006 - Warren Jeffs is arrested outside Las Vegas on a routine traffic stop.
Dec. 8, 2006 - Winston Blackmore goes on CNN with Larry King and admits to being a polygamist and having 'married' several girls who were 16 and one who was 15.
Aug. 1, 2007 - Special Prosecutor Richard Peck recommends to Attorney General Wally Oppal that rather than laying charges the province should refer the polygamy law to the B.C. Court of Appeal to determine whether it is constitutionally sound. Oppal disagrees.
Sept. 7, 2007 - Oppal appoints another special prosecutor, Leonard Doust to review the evidence RCMP collected and review Peck's decision.
Sept. 25, 2007 - FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs is convicted on two counts as an accomplice to rape of a 14-year-old girl, who he had forced to marry her 19-year-old, first cousin.
April 7, 2008 - Doust reports to Oppal that he agrees with Peck and recommends a court reference. Oppal is still not convinced.
June 2, 2008 - Oppal appointed Terry Robertson as special prosecutor, who subsequently asks RCMP to do more investigating.
Jan. 6, 2008 - RCMP Sgt. Terry Jacklin swears information about Oler and Blackmore, charging each with one count of practicing polygamy.
Jan. 7, 2008 - Blackmore and Oler are arrested, taken to Cranbrook where they are charged and released with conditions. Their first court appearance is set for Jan. 21 in Creston provincial court.
