1961: Death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld

“Mr. Hammarskjold, whose name is on buildings in and around the United Nations headquarters in New York, was an iconic Swedish diplomat, the organization’s second secretary general and a strong advocate for decolonization in Africa. He is the only person to have been posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and was described by President John F. Kennedy as ‘the greatest statesman of our century’.”

United Nations Archives