World Health Organization

Historical eventDecember 312019

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everything on December 31Original source

In context

When
Tuesday, December 31 20197 years ago
Category
Historical eventA dated happening — a battle, treaty, launch, discovery, disaster or decision — recorded on this calendar day.
Era
21st century · 2010s
Recorded from
Wikipedia “On this day” feed

At a glance

Dates: From 1948-04-07.

Place: Switzerland.

Type: specialized agency of the United Nations, open-access publisher, international organization, and academic publisher.

What happened

History Origin and founding Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar , the first president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1946, played a central role in founding the World Health Organization (WHO). Under his presidency, ECOSOC initiated the international conference that established the WHO as a specialized UN agency. The International Sanitary Conferences (ISC), the first of which was held on 23 June 1851, were a series of conferences that took place until 1938, about 87 years. [ 1 ]

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. Only sovereign states are eligible to join, and it is the largest intergovernmental health organization at the international level.

December 31 through the years

Other entries on the same calendar day, in order.

  1. 2001Flag of Rwanda
  2. 2004Taipei 101
  3. 2006War in Somalia (2006–2009)
  4. 2009Blue moon
  5. 20102010 New Year's Eve tornado outbreak
  6. 2011NASA
  7. 20142014 Shanghai stampede
  8. 2015Downtown Dubai
  9. 20182018 Magnitogorsk building collapse
  10. 2019World Health Organization
  11. 2020COVID-19 vaccine

Also in 2019

  • March 14Cyclone IdaiCyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1,000 deaths.
  • September 14Abqaiq–Khurais attackDrone attacks on major processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais forced Saudi Arabia to cut more than half of its oil production.
  • September 14YemenYemen's Houthi rebels claim responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
  • November 17COVID-19The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
  • October 22Same-sex marriage in Northern IrelandSame-sex marriage is legalised, and abortion is decriminalised in Northern Ireland as a result of the Northern Ireland Assembly not being…
  • August 10Typhoon LekimaHaving already caused severe flooding in the Philippines, Typhoon Lekima made landfall in Zhejiang, China, killing 45 people in the provi…
  • August 10Jeffrey EpsteinJeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Ne…
  • August 102019 Bærum murder and mosque attackPhilip Manshaus shoots his stepsister and attacks a mosque in the Bærum mosque shooting.

Everything we record for 2019 →

Sources

Cite this page

“World Health Organization”, What's On This Date, https://whatsonthisdate.com/app/event/world-health-organization-2019-december-31, accessed October 28, 2026.

Cite the underlying source as well — the source links above go to the record this entry is adapted from.

Questions about this entry

When did World Health Organization happen?

December 31 2019 — 7 years ago, on a Tuesday.

Where does this text come from?

Wikipedia “On this day” feed. Summaries are short adaptations that link back to the source, not reprints.

How do I cite this page?

Use the ready-made citation near the sources at the bottom of the page, and follow the source link to cite the underlying record as well.

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