Dag Hammarskjöld

2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations
In office
April 10, 1953 – September 18, 1961
Preceded by	Trygve Lie
Succeeded by	U Thant
Born	July 29, 1905 Jönköping, Sweden
Died	September 18, 1961 Ndola, Northern Rhodesia

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (Dag Hammarskjöld (help· info)) (July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961) was a Swedish diplomat and the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3000x2516, 410 KB) Former general secretary of United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld Image from http://www. ... The United Nations Secretary-General is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal divisions of the United Nations. ... April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Trygve Halvdan Lie (July 16, 1896 – December 30, 1968) was a Norwegian politician. ... Maha Thray Sithu U Thant (January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974) was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. ... July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Location in Sweden Jönköping [jÅ“ncøːpiÅ‹] is a town in the province of SmÃ¥land in southern Sweden with 81,000 inhabitants, located at 57°47′N 14°12′E. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipality (pop. ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 (2000 census}. It is the main hub of the Copperbelt, a region in which Zambias copper is mined. ... Motto: One Zambia, One Nation Anthem: Stand and Sing of Zambia, Proud and Free Capital Lusaka Largest city Lusaka Official language(s) English Government Republic  - President Levy Mwanawasa Independence From United Kingdom   - Date October 24, 1964  Area    - Total 752,614 km² (38th)   290,586 sq mi   - Water (%) 1% Population    - July... Image File history File links Sv-Dag_Hammarskjöld. ... July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... This page is about negotiations; for the board game, see Diplomacy (game). ... The United Nations Secretary-General is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal divisions of the United Nations. ... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Early life

Dag Hammarskjöld was born in Jönköping, although he lived most of his childhood in Uppsala. He was the fourth and youngest son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Prime Minister of Sweden (1914–1917), and Agnes Almquist. His ancestors had served the Swedish Crown since the 17th century. He studied at Uppsala University where he graduated with a Master's degree in political economy and a Bachelor of Law degree. He then moved to Stockholm. Location in Sweden Jönköping [jÅ“ncøːpiÅ‹] is a town in the province of SmÃ¥land in southern Sweden with 81,000 inhabitants, located at 57°47′N 14°12′E. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipality (pop. ... Uppsala (older spelling Upsala) 59°51′ N 17°38′ E is a Swedish City in central Sweden, located about 70 km north of Stockholm. ... Hjalmar Hammarskjöld Knut Hjalmar Leonard Hammarskjöld, (February 4, 1862 – October 12, 1953) politician, scholar, cabinet minister, Member of Parliament 1923–38 (first chamber), Prime Minister of Sweden 1914–17. ... The Prime Minister or Statsminister is the head of Government in Sweden. ... The Crown is a term which is used to separate the government authority and property of the state in a kingdom from any personal influence and private assets held by the current Monarch. ... Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The degree of Bachelor of Laws is the principal academic degree in law in most common law countries. ... Stockholm panorama from the City Hall is the capital of Sweden, located on the south east coast of Sweden. ...

From 1930 to 1934 he was a secretary of a governmental committee on unemployment. He also wrote his economics thesis Konjunkturspridningen (The Spread of the Business Cycle) and received his Doctorate from Stockholm University in 1933. In 1936 Hammarskjöld became a secretary in the Bank of Sweden and soon he was an undersecretary of finance. From 1941 to 1948 he served as a chairman of the Bank of Sweden. An 1837 political cartoon about unemployment in the United States. ... Stockholm University, or Stockholms universitet, is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. ... Sveriges Riksbank (Swedish National Bank) is the central bank of Sweden, sometimes called just the Bank of Sweden. ...

Early in 1945, he was appointed an adviser to the cabinet on financial and economic problems, and coordinated government plans to alleviate the economic problems of the post-war period.

In 1947 Hammarskjöld was appointed to Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and in 1949 he became the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He was a delegate in the Paris conference that established the Marshall Plan. In 1948 he was again in Paris to attend conference for the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. In 1950 he became a head of Sweden delegation to UNISCAN. In 1951, he became a cabinet minister without portfolio and in effect Deputy Foreign Minister. Although Hammarskjöld served with a cabinet dominated by the Social Democrats, he never officially joined any political party. On December 20, 1954, he was elected to take his father's vacated seat in the Swedish Academy. In 1951 Hammarskjöld became vice chairman of Swedish delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in Paris. He became the chairman of the Swedish delegation to the General Assembly in New York in 1952. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is responsible for Swedish foreign policy. ... The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in Swedish kabinettssekreterare, sometimes translated as Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs or Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is the highest position below the rank of cabinet minister. ... Map of Cold-War era Europe showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ... The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... A Minister without Portfolio is a government minister with no specific responsibilities. ... The Social Democratic Labour Party of Sweden (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetareparti or SAP), is a one of the main political parties in Sweden. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Swedish Academy or Svenska Akademien, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. ... United Nations General Assembly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

UN Secretary General

When Trygve Lie resigned from his post as UN Secretary General in 1953, the Security Council decided to recommend Hammarskjöld to the post. It came as a surprise to him. He was selected on March 31 with the majority of 10 out of eleven states. The UN General Assembly elected him in the April 7–10 session, by 57 votes out of 60. In 1957 he was re-elected. Trygve Halvdan Lie (July 16, 1896 – December 30, 1968) was a Norwegian politician. ... The United Nations Secretary-General is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal divisions of the United Nations. ... A session of the Security Council in progress The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining. ...

Hammarskjöld started his term by establishing his own secretariat of 4,000 administrators. He set up regulations that defined their responsibilities. He insisted that the secretary-general should be able to take emergency action without the prior approval of the Security Council or the General Assembly.

During his terms, Hammarskjöld tried to soothe relations between Israel and the Arab states. In 1955 he went to mainland China to negotiate the release of 15 US pilots who had served in the Korean War and been captured by the Chinese. In 1956 he established the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF). In 1957 he intervened in the Suez Crisis. The highlighted area in the map is what is commonly known as mainland China. Mainland China (Simplified Chinese: 中国大陆; Traditional Chinese: 中國大陸; pinyin: Zhōnggúo Dàlù; literally The Chinese Massive Landmass or Continental China) is an informal (disputed — see talk page) geographical term which is usually synonymous with the area... Combatants Western Allied/UN combatants: South Korea, United States, United Kingdom Communist combatants: North Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Soviet Union Commanders Douglas MacArthur Kim Il-sung, (Peng Dehuai de facto) Strength Note: All figures may vary according to source. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The first United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was established by United Nations General Assembly to secure an end to the 1956 Suez Crisis with resolution 1001 (ES-I) on November 7, 1956, and in large measure as a result of efforts by secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld and a proposal... Combatants United Kingdom, Israel, France Egypt Commanders Moshe Dayan (CoS of the IDF) General Sir Charles Keightley (C-in-C), Vice-Admiral Pierre Barjot (Deputy) Gamal Abdel Nasser Strength 45,000 British, 34,000 French, 175,000 Israeli 300,000 Egyptians Casualties 189 Israelis KIA, unknown number WIA, 16 British...

In 1960 the former Belgian colony and now newly-independent Congo asked for UN aid in defusing the escalating civil strife. Hammarskjöld made four trips to the Congo republic. However, his efforts towards the decolonisation of Africa were considered insufficient by the USSR. In September 1960 the Soviet Union denounced his decision to send a UN emergency force to keep the peace. They demanded his resignation, and the replacement of the office of secretary-general by a three-man directorate with a built-in veto, the "troika". The objective was, citing the memoirs of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, to "equally represent interests of three groups of countries: capitalist, socialist and recently independent" [1]. Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... The word veto comes from Latin and literally means I forbid. ... (Russian: , Nikita Sergeevič Hruščëv; surname commonly romanized as Khrushchev, IPA: ; April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ...

Death

In September 1961 he found out about the fighting between non-combatant UN forces and Katanga troops of Moise Tshombe. He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on the night of September 17-18 when his plane crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He and fifteen others perished. There is still speculation as to the cause of the crash. Capital Lubumbashi Created June 1960 Dissolved January 1963 Demonym Katangan Currency Katanga franc Katanga is the southern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, regional capital Lubumbashi (formerly Elizabethville). ... Moise Kapenda Tshombe (November 10, 1919 - June 29, 1969) was a Congolese politician. ... Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 (2000 census}. It is the main hub of the Copperbelt, a region in which Zambias copper is mined. ...

The explanation of investigators at the time is that Hammarskjöld's aircraft descended too low on its approach to Ndola's airport at night. The crew had filed no flight plan for security reasons. No evidence of a bomb, surface-to-air missile or hijacking has ever been presented. It has been speculated that the crew of the DC-6 incorrectly used altitude data for Ndolo, which is in the Congo and at lower altitude, rather than Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. Flight plans are plans filed by pilots with the local Aviation Authority (e. ... Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 (2000 census}. It is the main hub of the Copperbelt, a region in which Zambias copper is mined. ...

On August 19, 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), revealed that recently-uncovered letters had implicated South African agents in the 1961 crash of Dag Hammarskjöld's plane. One TRC letter said that a bomb in the aircraft's wheel-bay was set to detonate when the wheels came down for landing.^{[citation needed]} August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born October 7, 1931) is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. ... The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. ...

On July 29, 2005, exactly 100 years after Hammarskjöld's birth, the Norwegian Major General Bjørn Egge gave an interview to the newspaper Aftenposten on the events surrounding his death. According to Egge, who was the first UN officer to see the body, Hammarskjöld had a hole in his forehead, and this hole was subsequently airbrushed from photos taken of the body. It appeared to Egge that Hammarskjöld had been thrown from the plane, and grass and leaves in his hands might indicate that he survived the crash, and had tried to scramble away from the wreckage. Egge's statement does not, however, align with Archbishop Tutu's information.[2] July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Bjørn Egge, (born 1918) in Norway is a retired Major General. ... Aftenposten is Norways second largest newspaper with a circulation of 256,600 copies for the morning edition, 155,400 copies for the separate evening edition and 232,900 copies for the Sunday edition in 2003. ...

Hammarskjöld posthumously received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. His only book Vägmärken (Markings) was published in 1963. A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends at his death in 1961.[3] In the book Hammarskjöld reveals himself as a Christian Mysticist and describes his diplomat deed in the way of a ”inner journey”; the book became popular with, for example, U.S. students and also with the now resigned Swedish archbishop K.G. Hammar. The Nobel Peace Prize Medal featuring a portrait of Alfred Nobel Lester B. Pearson after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ... K. G. Hammar Photo: Jim Elfström/IKON Karl Gustav Hilding Hammar (born February 18, 1943 in Hässleholm), commonly referred to as K. G. Hammar, is a Swedish clergyman. ...

See also

• Olof Palme
• Bernt Carlsson

Sven Olof Joachim Palme ( ) (January 30, 1927 – February 28, 1986) was a Swedish politician. ... Bernt Carlsson Bernt Wilmar Carlsson was born in 1938 in Stockholm, Sweden, and died in the Lockerbie bombing on December 21, 1988. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dag Hammarskjöld

• Kofi Annan, Dag Hammarskjöld and the 21st century, The Fourth Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture 6th September 2001, Uppsala University (pdf)
• Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General: the official website of the UN
• Markings - "the spiritual diary of Dag Hammarskjöld"
• Biography
• The Nobel Prize
• Letters say Hammarskjöld's death Western plot
• UN assassination plot denied
• Plot to kill Hammarskjöld
• Media briefing by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• 18 September 1961 UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld is killed

United Nations Secretaries-General
Gladwyn Jebb | Trygve Lie | Dag Hammarskjöld | U Thant | Kurt Waldheim | Javier Pérez de Cuéllar | Boutros Boutros-Ghali | Kofi Annan