Today in History: The United Nations conducts its very first General Assembly meeting
Originally 51 nations were members of the United Nations General Assembly.
On this day in 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations, comprising 51 nations, convenes at Westminster Central Hall in London, England.
One week later, the UN Security Council met for the first time and established its rules of procedures. Then, on 24 January, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution, a measure calling for the peaceful uses of atomic energy and the elimination of atomic and other weapons of mass destruction.
In 1944, at the Dumbarton Oaks conference in Washington DC, the groundwork was laid by Allied delegates for an international postwar organisation to maintain peace and security in the postwar world. The organisation was to possess considerably more authority over its members than the defunct League of Nations, which had failed in its attempts to prevent the outbreak of World War II.
In April 1945, with celebrations of victory in Europe about to commence, delegates from 51 nations convened in San Francisco to draft the United Nations Charter. On 26 June 1945, the document was signed by the delegates, and on 26 October 1945 it was formally ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of other signatories.
The original 51 members of the United Nations were France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.
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