events-Europe and International

31 October 2011, The global population officially reached 7 billion.

25/2/2006, The global population officially reached 6.5 billion.

2 July 2005, Live8 Concerts, to raise funds for Africa, were held in Berlin, Edinburgh, London, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, and other cities.

2002, The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established. Replacing earlier ad-hoc United Nations tribunals, the ICC was set up to try individuals accused of crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes. It is located in The Hague, Netherlands.

9 July 2002, The African Union (AU) was founded, as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity(founded 1963, dissolved 2002).� The AU was idealistically modelled upon the European Union, with plans for a supranational government, administration, a Court of Justice, financial institutions and a peace and security council. There was also to be a pan-African Parliament, based in South Africa. However the required co-operation between African states has not so far been achieved,

30 November 2000, Major demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organisation meeting there.

8 September 2000, Albania officially joined the WTO.

30 April 1999, Cambodia joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bringing the total number of members to ten.

12 October 1999, According to the UN, the world population reached 6 billion.

18 June 1999, Anti-Globalisation protests in many cities around the world, some of which became riots.

1 January 1995, The World Trade Organisation was created to replace GATT.

8 December 1994, US President Clinton signed for the USA to agree to the Uruguay Round of the GATT trade liberalisation agreement, This replaced GATT by the WTO in 1995.

1993, NAFTA, North American Free Trade Association, was founded.

15 December 1993. Completion of the GATT Uruguay Round (began 1986 in Punta del Este, Uruguay). 117 countries signed the economic liberalisation agreement in Marrakesh, Morocco.

9 November 1993. The UN said the number of refugees worldwide rose from 2.5 million in 1973 to 19.7 million today

21 March 1992, The US Census Bureau officially estimated the world population to be 5.4 billion, of whom 1.2 billion were Chinese. It projected a world population of over 8 billion by 2020.

1989, APEC, Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, was founded.

1989, The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was set up, following a G7 Summit. It is an inter-governmental organisation aimed at preventing money-laundering. After the 9-11 attacks of 2001, the FATF also took on the role of preventing funds reaching terrorist groups.

11 July 1987, The world population was officially stated to have attained 5 billion.

21 September 1986. The Stockholm Accord was signed, at a 35-nation conference. Advance warning of troop movements by NATO or the Warsaw pact was agreed.

25 December 1985, Comic Relief, a global poverty relief charity, was founded.

7 July 1982, Hungary became a member of the World Bank.

6 May 1982, Hungary joined the International Monetary Fund.

1981, World population reached 4.5 billion, of whom 960 million were Chinese.

1975, The �G7� was founded. A group of seven countries, later to become 8 with the addition of Russia, who met to decide economic policy and sometimes to co-ordinate strategy.

28 May 1975, 15 West African states signed the Treaty of Lagos, setting up the Economic Community of West African States.

1974, World population reached 4 billion.

1972, The UK charity Action Aid was founded, to help improve living conditions in Global South countries.

8 August 1967, ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) was founded. The original members were Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997,� and Cambodia in 1999. East Timor attempted to join, post-independence, but was blocked by Indonesia.

11/1966, The Asian Development Bank was set up.

1963, The African Development Bank was founded. Based in Abidjan, Cote d�Ivoire, its function was to make loans at preferential rates for African development schemes. Funded by both individual countries and other multinational organisations, it began operations in 1966.

25 May 1963, The OAU (Organisation of African Unity) was founded at Addis Ababa.

30 September 1961, The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) was founded in Paris.

28 May 1961. Amnesty International was founded in London.

14 September 1960, OPEC �was set up by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

supply to Tunisia by the USSR; France feared Tunisian support for Algerian Nationalists.

26 October 1956, The United Nations approved the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

1955, CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation) was formed. It was a political/military alliance, comprising the UK along with Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, whose purpose was to defend against any possible aggression from the USSR. Iraq withdrew in 1958 and CENTO ceased to exist when Iran also withdrew after the 1979 Revolution.

27 April 1955, The First Bandung Conference ended (started 18 April 1955). This was a meeting of 29 newly-independent African and Asian countries who were keen to distance themselves from the USA/USSR superpower rivalry. Nations in attendance included China (Zhou Enlai), India (Nehru), Cambodia (Sihanouk), Burma (U Nu), and Egypt (Gamal Abd-al-Nasser). The presence of China signalled that country�s determination to pursue its own brand of Communism, independent of Russia, The Summit, held in Bandung, Indonesia, was a major foreign policy triumph for Indonesian President Sukharno.

8 September 1954, The Treaty setting up SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation) was signed at Manila.

18 May 1954. The European Convention on Human Rights came into force.

31 December 1951, The Organisation of American States was founded in Washington DC.

1 July 1951. The Colombo Plan was founded in Sri Lanka, to aid the development of south east Asia.

6 June 1950, Trygve Lie was appointed to a new term as United Nations Secretary General. He announced a 20-year peace programme, more meetings with foreign ministers, creation of a permanent UN military force, admission of new members, and more aid for poorer countries.

27 April 1949, The Commonwealth was founded in London.

25 January 1949. COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) was founded in Moscow.

2 September 1947, The Organisation of American States (OAS) was set up.

1945, Christian Aid was set up, to provide relief operations in developing countries.

1945, The International Monetary Fund was founded. The World Bank was founded. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) was founded.

11/1939, The Nobel Peace Prize Committee decided that the annual Nobel Peace Prize would not be awarded this year.

1930, The Bank for International Settlements was founded.

3 October 1928, Shridrath Ramphal, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, was born

17 June 1925, Geneva arms Conference closed.

18 May 1926, The Preparatory Commission for a World Disarmament Conference held its first meeting, The US, UK and Japan attended, but the USSR did not.

4 May 1925, Geneva Conference on arms traffic and the use of poison gas in� war opened.

26 September 1923, The Commonwealth Conference was held in London. Britain recognised the right of the dominions to make treaties with foreign powers.

15/2/1922. The first session of the Permanent Court of International Justice was held in The Hague, Netherlands.

16 December 1920. Permanent Court of International Justice established at The Hague.

11/ April 1919. The International Labour Organisation was established.

1913, Plans were drawn up for a worldwide map at a scale of 1:1,100,000. The project was interrupted by World War One, but the United Nations revived the project in 1953. The entire map series was never completed.

18 October 1907, Plans were announced for an International Court of Justice, to be set up in The Hague.

15 June 1907, The Second Peace Conference opened at The Hague (until 18 October 1907). The conference had been called by US President Roosevelt, originally for October 1904 but was postponed due to the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05. Germany now resisted calls by some of the 46 nations to stop the international arms race. It was agreed not to go to war over international debts, and to formulate rules of war and the rights of neutrals.

29 July 1899. At The Hague, a conference of 26 countries established a permanent international court of arbitration.

2 October 1889, The first Pan-American Congress met, in Washington. Its aim was to create closer relations between the States of the Americas.

6 June 1882, The three-mile limit for territorial waters was established by the Hague Convention.

16 April 1855, The Declaration of Paris was signed.

Appendix 0 � Red Cross

30 October 1910. Henri Durant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross in 1863, died.

1904, The Chinese Red Cross was founded.

1896, The Canadian Red Cross was founded.

21 May 1881, The American Association of the Red Cross was founded by US nurse Clara Burton.

1877, The Japanese Red Cross was founded.

1876, The Danish Red Cross was founded.

5 August 1870, At a public meeting in London, a resolution was passed calling for the formation of a British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War. This was the forerunner to the British Red Cross. This was seven years after the founding of the International Red Cross.

1867, The Austrian Red Cross was founded.

1865, The Swedish Red Cross was founded.

1865, The Norwegian Red Cross was founded.

29 October 1863. Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant founded the International Red Cross after witnessing the tending of the wounded at the Battle of Solferino, near Mantua, north Italy. Its fundamental principles were to aid wounded soldiers and oteyhr victims of war.

17/2/1863, Swiss philanthropist Jean Henri Dunant proposed the International Red Cross in Geneva.

1859, Henri Dunant travelled through the site of the Battle of Solferino, a few days after the actual battle in June; 15,000 lay dead and wounded, and many of the wounded lay for days before anyone came to care for them. Many of these died of their wounds before medical attention arrived. This sight led him to establish the Red Cross.

8 May 1828. Jean Henri Dumont, Swiss philanthropist and founder of the International Red Cross, was born in Geneva.

Appendix 2 � NATO

4 April 2023, Finland became the 31st member of NATO, to the consternation of Russia. This move was prompted by security concerns over Russia�s invasion of south eastern Ukraine.

1 April 2009, Albania and Croatia were admitted to NATO.

29 March 2004, NATO was expanded to include Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

22 November 2002, NATO agreed to invite Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join in 2004.

12 March 1999, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic joined NATO.

30 April 1998, The US Senate voted to admit Hungary, Poland and the Czech republic to NATO.

8 July 1997, NATO invited the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance.

22 May 1990, NATO Ministers cut defence spending, the so-called �Peace Dividend�.

31 March 1967, The Supreme Headquarters of NATO moved from France to Casteau, Belgium.

28 September 1960, NATO introduced a unified system of air command.

3 October 1954, A Nine-Power conference in London agreed that in the interests of European unity, Germany could join NATO.

4 April 1949, The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington. NATO was set up on 18 March 1949, by Britain and seven other European countries. Denmark had agreed to join on 25 March 1949. Eleven countries signed in total.

25 March 1949, Denmark agreed to join NATO.

Appendix 3 � United Nations and League of Nations

United Nations Statistics, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm

7 March 2012, The UN presented its report on violations of the human rights of gay people worldwide. Representatives of several African and Arab States walked out.

14 September 2009, The UN adopted the principles of �Responsibility to Protect� or R2P. This says that the sovereignty of States is not absolute in that the UN can choose to intervene when a state fails to protect its citizens from mass atrocities and human rights violations.

26 August 2002. The start of a ten-day �Earth Summit� held by the UN in South Africa. Delegates promised �action not words�. The Summit was snubbed by President George Bush, who refused to attend.

21 September 2001, The United Nations designated this day every year as International Day of Peace, and called for a ceasefire in all conflicts on this day.

1999, Nauru joined the United Nations.

13 December 1996, Kofi Anan became the 7^th Secretary General of the UN.

8 April 1993, Macedonia joined the United Nations.

1992, Kazakhstan was admitted to the United Nations.

1992, Armenia was admitted to the United Nations.

22 May 1992, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia joined the United Nations

1 January 1992, Butros Butros Ghali, a 69-year-old Egyptian, became the 6th General Secretary of the United Nations.

1991, South Korea joined the United Nations.

11 November 1981, Antigua and Barbuda joined the United Nations.

25 November 1974, U Thant, Burmese diplomat and Secretary-General to the UN 1962-71, died.

18 September 1973, The UN admitted East and West Germany.

21 December 1971, Kurt Waldheim succeeded U Thant as Secretary-General to the UN.

7 January 1965, Indonesia left the United Nations, under President Sukarno. This was in protest at Malaysia becoming a Security Council member.

23 March 1964, The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) opened at Geneva.

14 May 1963, Kuwait was admitted to the United Nations.

25 October 1962, Uganda was admitted to the United Nations, as the 110th member.

3 November 1961, The Burmese diplomat U Thant was elected UN Secretary-General.

27 October 1961, Mauritania and Mongolia were admitted to the United Nations.

18 September 1961, Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Prize Winner, was killed a plane crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia.� He had been flying from Leopoldville, Congo.

26 September 1957, Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden was re-elected Secretary-General of the United Nations for a further 5 years.

14 December 1955. Ireland joined the United Nations.

7 April 1953, Swedish civil servant Dag Hammarskold succeeded Trygve Lie as secretary of the United Nations.

31 March 1953, Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.��

4/2/1952, The United Nations Disarmament Commission first met.

28 September 1950, Indonesia was admitted to the UN.

10 January 1950, In the UN, the Soviet envoy walked out in protest at the Chinese Nationalists retaining the UN seat.

9 April 1949, The International Court of Justice of the UN handed down its first judgement. It held Albania responsible for incidents in the Corfu Channel, 1946, and awarded damages to the UK.

10 December 1948, The United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

30 September 1947, Pakistan and Yemen joined the UN.

1946, Afghanistan joined the United Nations.

14 December 1946, The UN accepted a US$ 8.5 million donation from John D Rockefeller to finance the construction of its headquarters in East River, New York, USA.

13 December 1946, The UN approved the creation of 8 trust territories, to see their final independence. They were New Guinea (under mandate of Australia); Western Samoa (New Zealand); Ruanda-Urundi, which later split as the nations of Rwanda and Burundi (Belgium); Tanganyika, later merged with Zanzibar as Tanzania (United Kingdom); and the Cameroons (Cameroon) and Togoland (Togo), under a British and French mandate.

11 December 1946, The UN International Children�s Emergency Fund was set up to provide aid to children in war-torn countries.

9 December 1946, The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

5 December 1946. New York was chosen as the permanent site of the UN.

19 November 1946, The first General Conference of UNESCO was held at Paris.

4 November 1946. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, was established, with headquarters in Paris.

23 October 1946, The first New York meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation took place.

18 April 1946. The League of Nations was formally dissolved, after the United Nations had been set up on 24 October 1945. See 26 June 1945.

25 March 1946, The UN Security Council met in New York.

30 January 1946. UN General Assembly met for the first time, in London.

29 January 1946, The United Nations Security Council agreed to recommend Trygve Lie as Secretary General of the Security Council.

12 January 1946. The United Nations General Assembly voted to admit Brazil, Poland and Australia to a 2 year term on the Security council, and to admit Mexico, Egypt and The Netherlands for 1 year terms.

10 January 1946, The League of Nations was officially dissolved, after 26 years, and replaced by the United Nations.

24 October 1945. The United Nations Charter came into force, see 18 April 1946.

26 June 1945, The Charter for the United Nations was signed by the US.

25 June 1945. The Charter for the United Nations was drawn up in San Francisco, and signed by 50 countries. This was the successor to the League of Nations. See 18 April 1946.

25 April 1945, An international conference to establish a world security organisation, the �United Nations�, opened in San Francisco.

20 October 1943, The United Nations War Crimes Commission was formed.

18 May 1943, UNRRA was founded.

14 August 1941, The UK Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the US President, Woodrow Wilson signed the Atlantic Charter, a further step towards the establishment of the United Nations.

12 June 1941, The Allies signed the Inter-Allied Declaration, setting the scene for the future United Nations.

8 April 1938, �Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, was born.

20/2/1937. Paraguay left the League of Nations.

1936, Italy left the League of Nations.

1934, The USSR joined the League of Nations.

11 June 1934, The League of Nations Disarmament Conference at Geneva ended in failure.

1933, Germany left the League of Nations.

27 March 1933, Japan announced it would leave the League of Nations, effective 1935.

16 March 1933, At the League of Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Britain�s plan for a reduction in the size of national armies failed, because of Germany�s insistence that its Stormtroopers not be included in the totals.

3 October 1932, Iraq joined the League of Nations.

2/2/1932, The World Conference on Disarmament opened in Geneva,

12 September 1931, Mexico was admitted to the League of Nations.

10/2/1926, Germany applied to join the League of Nations, Brazil and Spain blocked Germany�s admission, in protest at the plan to give Germany a seat on the Council, which they thought they should have instead.

10 September 1923. The Irish Free State was admitted to the League of Nations.

22 September 1921. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia joined the League of Nations.

17 December 1920, Albania joined the League of Nations.

16 December 1920. Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland and Latvia joined the League of Nations.

3 December 1920, Austria joined the League of Nations.

13 November 1920. The first full session of the League of Nations opened, attended by 5,000 representatives from 41 countries worldwide.

27 October 1920, The League of Nations headquarters moved to Geneva,

16 June 1920. At The Hague, the League of Nations Permanent Court of Justice opened.

25 May 1920, The Hague was chosen as the permanent seat of the League of Nations.

10 March 1920, The Netherlands joined the League of Nations.

8 March 1920. Denmark joined the League of Nations.

5 March 1920, Norway joined the League of Nations.

1/2/1920, The first full session of the League of Nations opened at St James Palace, London, overseen by the British Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour. Plans were made for an International Court of Justice.

13/2/1920, Switzerland joined the League of Nations.

19 January 1920, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary of the United Nations from 1982, was born.

13 January 1920, Argentina joined the League of Nations.

10 January 1920. The League of Nations, whose function was defined on 28 April 1919, legally came into being at Geneva. It first met in Paris on 16 January 1920, but was boycotted by the USA, partly over the votes given to Britain and the dominions, partly over the obligation by one member to defend another if attacked in war.

25 January 1919. The League of Nations was founded.

22 January 1917, US President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to the Senate, �Peace Without Victory�, condemning European imperialism and militarism and calling for a League of Nations.

27 May 1916, In the USA, a peacekeeping League of nations was proposed, to be created at the end of the Great War.

17 June 1915, The League to Enforce Peace was organised at Independence hall, Philadelphia, with William Taft as President. The League hoped to get nations to unite in peace; the organisation was a forerunner of the League of Nations.

22 January 1909, U Thant, diplomat and Secretary General to the United Nations, was born in Pantanaw, Burma.

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