June 26, 1945 marked the formal establishment of the United Nations with the signing of the U.N. Charter in San Francisco, California. Representatives from 50 countries attended the United Nations Conference on International Organization and signed the charter, with Poland later becoming one of the U.N.’s original 51 member states. The United Nations was created as the successor to the League of Nations, proposed by the Allies in 1941 to maintain peace in the postwar world. The name ‘United Nations’ was first used officially on January 1, 1942, with countries pledging to continue their joint war effort against the Axis Powers.
The forerunner to the United Nations, the League of Nations, was conceived after World War I, and the need for a new international organization was reiterated during World War II. In October 1943, major Allied powers released the Moscow Declaration, which called for the establishment of an international body to replace the League of Nations. The groundwork for the United Nations was laid during the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in August 1944, where the form of the world body was sketched out by the ‘Big Three’ – the U.S., Britain, and the USSR. Compromises on issues of membership and voting were reached at the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
The United Nations Conference on International Organization, also known as the San Francisco Conference, took place to establish the framework and foundations for the United Nations. The conference had 850 delegates from 50 countries, including those that had signed the original 1942 Declaration by the United Nations. Despite being an original signatory, Poland did not have a representative at the conference as there was no internationally recognized Polish Government at the time. Poland was later admitted, bringing the total number of founding member states to 51. The U.N. Charter was unanimously adopted on June 25, 1945, at the San Francisco Opera House.
The United Nations did not officially come into existence until October 24, 1945, after the governments of China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and a majority of other signatory states ratified the Charter. United Nations Day is annually observed on this date. Nearly 200 nations are currently members of the United Nations General Assembly, and the organization’s main bodies include the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. These bodies were established under the U.N. Charter in 1945 to maintain international peace and security, protect human rights, and deliver humanitarian aid.
President Truman spoke in 1945 about the U.N. Charter, highlighting how nations can state their differences, find common ground, and work together for the collective good. Today, the United Nations is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland; Nairobi, Kenya; Vienna, Austria; and The Hague in The Netherlands. The organization continues to work towards its main objectives of maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, and delivering humanitarian aid across the globe.
