Oct. 24, 1945 | United Nations Is Born

By The Learning Network
Library of CongressPresident Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter. The man looking on is his secretary of state, James F. Byrnes.
Historic Headlines

Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.

On Oct. 24, 1945, the United Nations charter took effect after being ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council (the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China) and a majority of the other 46 members.

The New York Times reported the following day, “In signing the protocol [U.S. Secretary of State James F.] Byrnes said the Charter was now a ‘part of the law of nations’ and that it was ‘a memorable day for the peace-loving peoples of all nations.’ But he warned that peace depended upon the will of the peoples for peace rather than upon documents.”

The United Nations was formed in the final days of World War II by 51 countries committed to the Allied forces. The organization succeeded the League of Nations, a similar intergovernmental organization formed after World War I.

The charter was drafted at a conference in San Francisco in April and signed on June 26, 1945. This document expressed the purposes and principles of the organization, chief among them to “maintain international peace and security” and “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character.” It also established its organization and procedures; every member state would have a seat in the General Assembly, which would elect members to the Security Council and other councils.

Connect to Today:

Today, the United Nations includes every internationally recognized country in the world except for the Vatican. Its actions include peacekeeping efforts in hostile areas, fighting disease and hunger through the World Health Organization, fostering economic development through the World Bank and promoting education and cultural development through UNESCO.

What are your thoughts on key issues facing the U.N. today like the Palestinian bid for full membership, concerns about the effectiveness of the peacekeeping mission in Congo, and the current crisis in Syria? To what extent, in your opinion, has the organization succeeded in its mission, as stated in its charter?

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Dilip October 24, 2011 · 5:18 am

Gratefull to have the UN to help save hummanity.

Ante October 24, 2011 · 4:09 pm

As young scholar my vision was to work in OUN. My mentor did tell me:You have in your firm OUN! It helped me! I have started with individuals, later groups, after it firms, and step ny step finished with regions and countries. I have discovered that effiviency of one state depend upon 5 capital: moral, intellectual, social, physical, and financial capital. 11 years ago i predicted that marginalnu productivity is such order. I did not know that interaction between these variables resulted that 85 percent of profit variance depends upon moral capital.
I was one of creator Peaceful reintegration in Eastern Crotia, which was one of the best project under OUN! Before it in Zagreb and Sarajevo i with my friends created postgraduate program with OUN university in Costarica.

John October 25, 2011 · 1:31 pm

The United Nations is a product of a time when humanity sought to do noble things, especially in the shadow of World War II’s horrors. I’m glad it perseveres because in our sad Age of Contraction something like it would not be created.

John Netherton October 31, 2011 · 8:45 pm

The World is host to a madness that consumes it. All are turned against each other in a war of all-against-all, and all are obsessed and maddened with the eternal quest for gain. The few controls against international conflict are now impotent and horribly obsolete in the age of police actions by the American Empire and NATO, by proxy wars fought by corporations and non-state actors, by ever-increasing ethnic strife.

What’s worse is that the most important lesson learned in the fire that burned the world in the 1940s, that dignity, our common humanity, and love have to prevail over all is lost. Dignity is a commodity that most must do without or die, our common humanity is all but forgotten and love is just another branding scheme.

The UN had such energy, and in the fields of humanitarianism, environmentalism and improving our dignity and common humanity, it still does. But few countries take it seriously any more. The pressing issues of our time, such as the abandonment of men in issues such as emotional help, family planning and gender issues, such as the ongoing intrastate conflicts that threaten to immolate the world once more, the ongoing impunity with which the USA can butcher millions – all that is left to the UN is to wag its finger and hope.

The UN has become dependent on the nation that espouses everything the UN was created to stand against. Already the USA threatens to destroy a fifth of the UN’s funding because of its humanitarian efforts in the Occupied Israeli Territories in recognizing Palestine as a state out of strife, much like South Sudan. But it will be atrophied.

The UN was noble, but these are times colder and crueler still than the age which birthed it. Hitler’s dream of a master race has been realized, though it be a race of self-styled corporate and political ubermenschen, and Mussolini’s dream of an eternal merger between corporate and state power is complete in the first world. The hate and inequality and dominion of all that’s worst in us is bearing fruit again, and the UN can do nothing to stop it.

The UN has failed.