Important Days & Dates Quiz: United Nations Days and Their Themes

The second International Day of Yoga fell in 2016, the year after the first observance of 2015, and the theme tied yoga to the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations had adopted in 2015, with the main event held at Chandigarh.

On this date in 1945 the Charter of the United Nations came into force, after the required majority of signatory states had ratified it, and the General Assembly called upon members to observe the anniversary from 1948.

The General Assembly established the day after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment of 1972, and it has been observed since 1974 under the lead of the UN Environment Programme, with a different country hosting the main event each year.

The General Assembly adopted it on 10 December 1948 at Paris, and the observance of the anniversary began in 1950; the Declaration has thirty articles and is the most translated document in the world.

WHO became a specialised agency of the United Nations on 7 April 1948, and the first World Health Day was observed in 1950; the organisation announces a theme for the day each year and its headquarters are at Geneva.

The General Assembly declared the day in 2007 and set it on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, so that the date honours the leader whose method of non-violent resistance the resolution names.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization proclaimed the day in 1966, and it was first observed in 1967; UNESCO also leads International Mother Language Day on 21 February and World Teachers’ Day on 5 October.

The Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme began the observance in 1989, taking the date from Five Billion Day, 11 July 1987, when the world’s population was estimated to have crossed five billion; the United Nations Population Fund now leads the campaign.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed on 16 September 1987, and the General Assembly later fixed that date as the ozone day.

The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded on 16 October 1945 at Quebec in Canada, and the day has been observed in its memory since 1981; the FAO has its headquarters at Rome and leads the campaign every year.

UNESCO proclaimed the day in 1999 and it has been observed since 2000, to promote linguistic diversity and mother-tongue education; the date recalls the language movement of 1952 in what is now Bangladesh.

The lead body — WHO for the health days, UNESCO for education and language, the FAO for food, UNEP for the environment, or a United Nations office where the General Assembly named no agency — publishes the theme, the campaign material and the programme for the year.