Key Events

-Representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco for the U.N. Conference on International Organization.

-The Dumbarton Oaks Conference was held from August to October. Its principal objective was to discuss the creation of an international organization to maintain peace after WWII. The United States, the Soviet Union, China and Great Britain attended the conference. The resulting Dumbarton Oaks Charter formed the framework for the U.N. Charter.

-The U.N. General Assembly voted to partition British-ruled Palestine into Jewish and Arab sectors, leading to the founding of Israel the following year.

-The construction of the U.N. Headquarters in New York began after U.S. business magnate John D. Rockefeller donated the necessary land.

-North Korea invaded South Korea. The U.N. Security Council responded with a call to all nations to come to the aid of South Korea and repel the invasion. The motion succeeded only because the Soviet Union was boycotting the U.N. Security Council.

-Egyptian leader Abdul Nasser ordered U.N. peacekeepers out of his country, setting the stage for him to invade Israel. The United Nations timidly agreed, and, as a result, Arab states launched attacks that began the Six-Day War.