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United Nations

global international and intergovernmental organization

124 dated entries naming United Nations, drawn from 58 separate years between 1907 CE and 2025 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as U.N., United Nations Organization in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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20th century

  • 1907June 5 – Shastri Yagnapurushdas consecrates the murtis of both Sahajanand Swami and Gunatitanand Swami in a single central shrine, thus establishing the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, later a United Nations affiliate organization.source
  • 1944August 21 – The Dumbarton Oaks Conference (Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization) opens in Washington, D.C.: U.S., British, Chinese, French and Soviet representatives meet to plan the foundation of the United Nations.source
  • 1945August 15 – The Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization is founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1945October 16 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is established at a meeting in Quebec City as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1945October 24 – The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter, by 29 nations including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, Egypt, Brazil, Haiti, Luxembourg, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and others.source
  • 1946January 10 – The first meeting of the United Nations is held, at Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London.source
  • 1946April 18 – The League of Nations, in its last meeting, transfers its mission to the United Nations and disbands itself.source
  • 1946October 16 – The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.source
  • 1946November 4 – UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1946December 14 – The International Labour Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1947September 30 – Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations.source
  • 1947November 15 – The Universal Postal Union (UPU) becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations (effective July 1 1948).source
  • 1947November 15 – The International Telecommunication Union becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1949January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2026source
  • 1949September 13 - The Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.source
  • 1949December 7 – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is established as a United Nations agency.source
  • 1950February – The Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery of the United Nations is formally inaugurated with its first meeting at Lake Success in February 1950.source
  • 195025 June – The Korean War begins. Luxembourg pledges its support to the United Nations. Soldiers from Luxembourg will form a platoon of A Company, Belgian United Nations Command.source
  • 1950November 4 – The United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain.source
  • 1951July 28 – Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a multilateral treaty of the United Nations, is signed at a special conference in Geneva, defining the status of refugees and setting out the basis for granting right of asylum, coming into force on 22 April 1954.source
  • 1951December 20 – The World Meteorological Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1952September 15 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.source
  • 1952September 18 – The Soviet Union vetoes Japan's application for membership in the United Nations.source
  • 1952October 14 – The United Nations begins work in the new United Nations building in New York City, designed by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.source
  • 1953October 6 – UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is made a permanent specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1954April 22 – The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees comes into force, defining the status of refugees and setting out the basis for granting right of asylum.source
  • 195514 December - Laos is admitted to the United Nations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.source
  • 1956November 7 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.source
  • 1956December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.source
  • 1957January 30 – The General Assembly of the United Nations calls on South Africa to reconsider its apartheid policy.source
  • 1959November 20 – The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.source
  • 1960July 11 - Moise Tshombe declared the Congolese province of Katanga independent, and, taking advantage of the Congo's dismissal of Belgian officers from the Congolese Army, asked for military aid from Belgium. The Congo's prime minister Patrice Lumumba asked the United Nations to intervene in the crisis.source
  • 1960July 17 - Joseph Kasavubu and Patrice Lumumba, unhappy with the United Nations' progress in pressuring Belgium to withdraw its troops from the former Belgian Congo, added a new dimension to the crisis with an ultimatum: If Belgian troops did not withdraw within 48 hours, the Congolese leaders would invite the Soviet Union to send troops to the African nation.source
  • 1960November 14 – Belgium threatens to leave the United Nations over criticism of its policy concerning the Republic of the Congo.source
  • 1960November 22 – The United Nations supports the government of Joseph Kasavubu and Joseph Mobutu in the Republic of the Congo.source
  • 1960December 4 - The Islamic Republic of Mauritania had applied to be the 100th member of the United Nations, but the request was vetoed in the Security Council by the Soviet Union, on grounds that Mongolia had been denied admission.source
  • 1960December 4 – The admission of Mauritania to the United Nations is vetoed by the Soviet Union.source
  • 1961February 15 – United States President John F. Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations' pacification of the Congo.source
  • 1961November 11 – Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots.source
  • 1961November 24 – The World Food Programme (WFP) is formed as a temporary United Nations program.source
  • 1962December 30 – United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia.source
  • 1965September 21 – Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.source
  • 1965October 4 – Pope Paul VI makes the first papal visit to the United States. He appears for a Mass in Yankee Stadium and makes a speech at the United Nations.source
  • 1965November 22 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1965December 20 – The World Food Programme is made a permanent agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1965December 21 – The United Nations adopts the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.source
  • 1967June 10 – Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.source
  • 1971February 26 – Secretary General U Thant signs the United Nations proclamation of the March equinox (March 21) as Earth Day.source
  • 1972December 8 – International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the United Nations.source
  • 1972December 15 – The United Nations Environment Programme is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1973September 18 – The two German Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), are admitted to the United Nations.source
  • 1973October 26 – The United Nations recognizes the independence of Guinea-Bissau.source
  • 1974December 17 – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1975September 16 – Cape Verde, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.source
  • 1975November 10 – United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379: By a vote of 72–35 (with 32 abstentions), the United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution provokes an outcry among Zionists. It is repealed in 1991.source
  • 1976January 27 – The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state.source
  • 1977November 30 – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1977December 20 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.source
  • 1982September 21 – The first International Day of Peace is proclaimed by the United Nations.source
  • 1984March 5 – Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons; the United Nations condemns their use on March 30.source
  • 1987July 11 – World population is estimated to have reached five billion people, according to the United Nations.source
  • 1988February 17 – U.S. Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped (and later killed by his captors).source
  • 1990September 29–30 – The United Nations World Summit for Children draws more than 70 world leaders to United Nations Headquarters.source
  • 1992January 21 - The United Nations issue United Nations Security Council Resolution 731, demanding that Libya hand over suspects in the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.source
  • 19922 March – Kazakhstan becomes a member of the United Nations.source
  • 1992March 31 - The United Nations issue United Nations Security Council Resolution 748, implementing sanctions (including an arms embargo, but not an oil embargo) on Libya due to the country's refusal to abide by Resolution 731 from January.source
  • 1992July 31 – Georgia becomes the 179th member of the United Nations after seceding from the Soviet Union the previous year.source
  • 1992December 3 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring that humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.source
  • 1993April 8 – The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations under a provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".source
  • 1993October 11–28 – The UNMIH is prevented from entering Haiti by its military-led regime. On October 18, United Nations economic sanctions (abolished in August) are reinstated. U.S. President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to enforce them.source
  • 1995February 13 – Twenty-one Bosnian Serb commanders are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a tribunal on human rights violations during the Wars in the Balkans.source
  • 1995July 28 - The United Nations Security Council extended sanctions on Libya over its role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.source
  • 1996April 18 – Qana massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the United Nations compound in Qana.source
  • 1996September 24 – U.S. president Bill Clinton signs the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.source
  • 1996December 7 – A United Nations 10-seater Beechcraft airplane carrying Tajik opposition leader Sayid Abdulloh Nuri and seven other Tajik passengers from Mashhad, Iran to Taloqan, Afghanistan was intercepted by Taliban aircraft and forced to land in Shindand.source
  • 199715 January – The proceeds of the first Iraqi sale of oil are deposited at a special UN account as part of the Oil-for-Food Programme.source
  • 1997July 9–12: President Glafcos Clerides and his Turkish counterpart Rauf Denktaş held face-to-face talks with each other under U.N. auspices at Troutbeck, New York.source
  • 1997December 11 – The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by a United Nations committee.source
  • 1998September 2 – A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.source
  • 1998September 18 – The United Nations condemns Libya, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for breaches against the UN's air embargo against Libya.source
  • 1999April 5 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.source
  • 1999June 12 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian/Operation Agricola begins: NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter Kosovo, Yugoslavia.source
  • 1999September 14 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.source
  • 2000April 21 - In Dushanbe, Tajikistan, U.N. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell held peace talks with Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood, former Nangarhar province governor Haji Abdul Qadeer and former member of the ousted Rabbani government Syed Hussain Anwari.source

21st century

  • 2001UN says thousands of Albanians are being poisoned by fatal toxins in their environment, urges international community to help.source
  • 2001Afghanistan shut down its airspace, two weeks after threatening to close it if the United Nations did not lift sanctions against Ariana Afghan Airlines. Although no flights were landing in Afghanistan, many flights were flying across Afghan airspace. Each time an aircraft flew over Afghanistan the airline had to pay Ariana $400. The money was deposited in accounts in Geneva that were frozen because of the sanctions.source
  • 2002A United Nations panel recommended sanctions against 29 companies, including the George Forrest Group, for the way their operations did business in the DR Congo. The panel also recommended sanctions against 54 individuals.source
  • 2002January 16 – The United Nations and Sierra Leone create a joint Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute the Revolutionary United Front.source
  • 2002August 26–September 4 – Earth Summit 2002 takes places in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.source
  • 2002September 27 – East Timor is admitted to the United Nations as the 191st member state; it also changes its official longform name from "Democratic Republic of East Timor" to "Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste".source
  • 2002U.N. and U.S. researchers reported that women in Afghanistan were dying during childbirth at a staggeringly high rate. In rural Badakhshan Province, the maternity death rate was highest rate ever documented—6,500 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. High death rates for mothers have profound implications for the children.source
  • 200311 March – Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, announces that UN-sponsored talks on the reunification of Cyprus have failed. Cyprus remains a candidate for EU membership and the Greek Cypriot government intends to sign on behalf of the whole island. Analysts suggested that Turkish opposition to unification may hurt Turkey's chances of joining the EU.source
  • 2003A report issued by the United Nations stated that Afghanistan had re-emerged as the world's leading source for opium and heroin. The report estimated that 500,000 people were involved in Afghanistan's trafficking chain and estimated an annual income at $25 billion.source
  • 2003November 18 - The United Nations' World Food Programme has warned that the need for aid in Ethiopia is set to soar.source
  • 2004January 15 – The United Nations call direct elections in advance of July impractical, due to continuing disorder and other factors.source
  • 2006March 20 - The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, says it has been ordered to leave Uzbekistan within one month.source
  • 2007January 30 – Ban Ki-moon, the new Secretary General of United Nations visits Kenya.source
  • 2007May 27: Nepalese police clash with Bhutanese asylum seekers at a United Nations resulting in one 16-year-old boy being killed and a dozen people being injured.source
  • 2007November 15: United Nations human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro visits political prisoners, including Su Su Nway, in Burma's Insein Prison.source
  • 2007November 16 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon holds talks with Lebanese political leaders, trying to break an impasse over the election of the next President.source
  • 2010November 23 – North Korea shells Yeonpyeong Island, prompting a military response by South Korea. The incident causes an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompts widespread international condemnation. The United Nations declares it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.source
  • 2011January 1 - Mass graves are discovered in Côte d'Ivoire amid other political violence as United Nations peacekeepers come under increased tension in the country when allies of Alassane Ouattara call for a forceful removal of Laurent Gbagbo.source
  • 2011July 14 – South Sudan joins the United Nations as the 193rd member.source
  • 2011July 20 – The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia, the first in over 30 years.source
  • 2012June 28 – Vice President of Iran Mohammad-Reza Rahimi delivers an antisemitic speech at a United Nations conference on the illegal drug trade saying that a central Jewish text, the Talmud, was responsible for the spread of illegal drugs around the world; his speech draws condemnation from U.N. and the European Union diplomats.source
  • 2014March 31 – The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and forbids grants of further permits.source
  • 2016January 16 – The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the United Nations to lift sanctions immediately.source
  • 201612 February: An attack by suspected Islamist militants on a MINUSMA base in the town of Kidal, northern Mali, kills at least five Guinean United Nations peacekeepers.source
  • 201720 February – The South Sudan government and the United Nations declared a famine in parts of Unity State, affecting more than 100,000 people, and fearing the famine could spread significantly as the order of one million people are threatened.source
  • 2017March 10 – The UN warns that the world is facing the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with up to 20 million people at risk of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.source
  • 201928 November – The United Nations blames anti-vaccination messages for the current outbreak of measles in the country, where the death toll has risen to 39 and is expected to rise as 200 are reported hospitalised, according to the World Health Organization. Total cases now soar to near 3,000.source
  • 2020January 5 – Second Libyan Civil War: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya on behalf of the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord.source
  • 2020April 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Saudi–led coalition declares a unilateral ceasefire in its operations against Houthi forces in Yemen in accordance with United Nations-led efforts.source
  • 2020May 14 – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is "ready to support" the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Libya while Greece, a member state of NATO, strongly criticizes Stoltenberg's remarks, saying his recognition of the "Muslim Brotherhood government" does not reflect the positions of the military alliance.source
  • 2020May 14 – The UN warns of a global mental health crisis caused by isolation, fear, uncertainty and economic turmoil.source
  • 2020September 17 – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom issue a joint note verbale to the United Nations rejecting China's claims to the South China Sea, and supporting the ruling in Philippines v. China that said the historic rights per the nine-dash line ran counter to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the statement says that on "territorial sovereignty" they "take no position".source
  • 20204 December – Vanuatu officially graduates from the United Nations official list of Least Developed Countries (LDC) becoming the sixth nation to ever do so. The UN Committee for Development Policy recommended for Vanuatu for graduation in 2012. In 2012, the Economic and Social Council and in 2013 the General Assembly approved the recommendation, however after Cyclone Pam, the country was granted an extension until 2020.source
  • 2022April 7 – The UN votes by 93–24 to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, with 58 countries abstaining.source
  • 2022July 22 – 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine sign the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to facilitate the shipment of grain exports and reduce soaring global food prices.source
  • 2022September 1 – The UN releases a report stating that the Chinese government's Xinjiang internment camps and treatment of Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity.source
  • 2023November 6 – Gaza war: The death toll in Gaza is reported to have passed 10,000. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres calls for a humanitarian ceasefire to increase the flow of aid to civilians.source
  • 2024March 14 – The United Nations estimates that at least 56% of Palestinian civilians killed in the Gaza war were women and children.source
  • 2024A United Nations Independent Expert on persons with albinism reports discrimination in Lesotho, including limited access to healthcare and education.source
  • 2025November 25 – A report published by the United Nations shows that Indonesian capital Jakarta has surpassed Japanese capital Tokyo as the world's largest city, with a population of 42 million people.source

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