segalm

Declaration date: the day that dividends declared are removed from retained earnings and put into dividends payable.
Ex-dividend date: the day that the dividend is removed from the stock value; if you sell before this date, you don’t get the dividend; if you sell on or after this date, you do.  The stock price will drop by the amount of the dividend on this date.  (It should drop by the PV of the dividend, but such nuances are omitted.)
Holder-of-record date: generally two days after the ex-dividend date; owners of record on this date receive the dividend.  (Originally it was deemed to take two days to record the sale; hence, the two-day delay from the ex-dividend date to the holder-of-record date.)
Payment date: the day that dividends are paid, cash and dividends payable are removed from the balance sheet.