Dag Hammarskjöld

{{Audio|sv-Dag_Hammarskjöld.ogg|Dag Hammarskjöld}} (full name Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld) (July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961) was a Swedish diplomat who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in an plane crash in September of 1961.

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.

Related Topics:
1961 - Katanga - Moise Tshombe - Ndola - Zambia

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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-landing in Zambia 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.http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:_fpmEK14n1AJ:www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/haseldine.html+%22Bernt+Carlsson%22&hl=en

Related Topics:
August 19 - 1998 - Desmond Tutu - Truth and Reconciliation Commission

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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.http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1087787.ece

Related Topics:
July 29 - 2005 - Norwegian - Major General - Bjørn Egge - Aftenposten

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Hammarskjöld posthumously received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. His only book Vägmärken (Markings) was published in 1963.

Related Topics:
Nobel Peace Prize - 1961 - Vägmärken - 1963

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