February 29th

On this day - February 29th 1940 - Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award

Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with The Wind. McDaniel is most known for her part in Gone With the Wind but she also was a professional singer-songwriter,comedian, stage actress radio performer and television star. She was the first African American woman to sing on the radio in the USA. She made a contribution to over 300 films but only received screen credits for around 80 films.  Her contribution has been celebrated by the Hollywood Walk of Fame by no less than two stars. During World War II she served as chairman of the "Negro Division" of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. She med personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at the United Service Organization shows and war bond rallies. All out an impressive woman from one of our favorite movies Gone With The Wind

February 28th

On this day - February 28th 1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H 

M*A*S*H was an american TV show about the life in a military hospital during the Korean war. The series premiered in September 1972 and aired its last episode in 1983. The final episode had the title "Goodbye, farewell and Amen" and lasted for 2 and a half hour. This episode is one of the most watched and highest rated final episode of any american TV show of all times. Around 115 million Americans watched the final episode. Three minutes after the show ended experienced New York City one of the highest water usage at any given time in the city's history. This was due to everyone waiting for the episode to finish before using the bathroom.

February 27th

On this day - February 27th 1900 - FC Bayern Munchen was established 

FC Bayern Munchen is a German football (soccer) team that was founded when a group of members of the Munich Gymnastics Club were told they were not allowed to join German Football Association. They left the gymnastic club and created their own football team. The team did alright already from their first season, and they joined the Bavarian league right after it was created in 1910. They won their first national title in 1932. During the Second World War, the coach and the president of the club had to leave Germany because they were Jewish. This impacted Bayern Munich's results, and it would take several years before they again won the national title. In 2005 opened their new arena, Allianz Arena in Munich. The a stadium take 75.000 people and is one of the worlds most modern football stadiums.

February 26th

On this day - February 26th 1616 - Galileo Galilei banned by the Church 

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who contributed in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. Galilei made major contributions to several sciences and has been called, father of observational astronomy, father of modern physics, and father of science. Galileo is most known for championing the heliocentric (the sun is the center) world view , as apposed to the geocentric ( Earth is center) that was the norm. It was for his new heliocentric world view he was banned by the Roman Catholic church on this day. The Church had asked a group of theologians known as the Qualifiers about the heliocentric worldview and on February 24th they concluded "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture...". The Church then sentenced Galilei, and should he not accept the following sentence it would be worse. 

"to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing."

Galilei abandoned the controversy for many years until he released the book "Dialog concerning the Two Chief World Systems" the book was initially published in 1632 with authorization from the inquisition and papal permission. This writing caused Galilei to be sentenced as a "vehemently suspect of heresy"  and landed him in prison and the book was banned. 

February 25th

On this day - February 25th 1866 - The Calaveras skull was discovered 

The Calaveras Skull was a human skull discovered by miners in California. The skull was found in a layer of lava, 40 meters below earths surface. The skull supposedly proved that humans, mammuts and elephants had coexisted in California. Withney, a researcher who had suggested this theory even before the skull was discovered, presented his research findings in July 1867. According to him would this skull have been the oldest human remains found on the continent. However, it would not take a long time for the authenticity of the skull was questioned. The first ever fluorine analysis done on human bones indicated that it was of newer origin. Some of the miners also admitted that the skull was planted simply as a practical joke. Withney did, however, never waiver in his belief. More modern research has dated the skull to be around 1000 years old.

February 24th

Februar 24th 2010 - Orcas trainer Dawn Brancheau drowned at Seaworld

Dawn Brancheau had been working as an Orcas trainer fr 16 years before the fatal accident in 2010. She was doing an after training session with Tilikum, one of the Orcas in the park, when he grabbed her left arm. The animal dragged her under water, crushed her and drowned her. Brancheau was not the first accident to include Tilikum. His first victim was in 1991 when a marine biologist slipped and fell into the pool he and two female orcas inhabited. In 1999 was another person drowned when he climbed into the pool after closing time. The blame for those accidents have primarily been laid on he conditions Tilikum have been living under while in captivity. Dawn Brancheau's family created the Dawn Brauncheau Foundation to honor her memory.

Dawn Brancheau's death received a lot of attention, in particular after the movie "Blackfish" was released. This movie focused on the captivity of orcas and of the accidents they have been involved in. Sea World Orland received sever criticism for their treatment of Orcas and of Tilkum in general after the movie. This led to changes in Sea Worlds regulations of human contact with the animals. We recommend to watch the movie Blackfish which can be found on Amazon or on Netflix.

CC Ed Schipul

February 23rd

On this day - February 23rd 1947 - The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was founded

ISO is an international Non-governmental organization which creates international standards. The organization was created after the Second World War to help international business as trade. At the time consisted the organization of only participants from 25 countries, but it is today truly an international organization. Although ISO was established in February 1947 took it another two months before the required 15 nations had signed off on their constitution and the organization could start their work. Their main office is in Geneve and the official languages are French and English (And to some degree, Russian). ISO creates standards for almost everything today, from Risk management, to environmental management and diving equipment. My favorite standard is the one they have for credit card sizes. Just imaging how much more complicated everyday life and traveling would be if different stores or countries had different sized credit cards and you needed one for each country you were traveling to! Another important standard is the container size standard which have made it incredible much faster, cheaper and easier to transport goods on ships.

And if you found this remotely interesting I would really recommend this book about ISO and its history. I read it several times and I found it useful. Also, if you have any questions about ISO or would like to know more about the history of this relatively unknown, but important organization or their environmental management standards please leve us a message (This is my area of expertise!)

February 22

On this day -February 22 1980 - The "Miracle on Ice" ice hockey match

The USA won 4-3 against the Soviet Union in an ice hockey match during the Olympic winter games in Lake Placid, USA. The Soviet Union was the favorite to win the match, as they had won six out of the seven last Olympic Gold medals in Ice Hockey. After the second round was the Soviet Union leading 3-2 and it wasn't until the last round that the US actually gained the lead. The US went on to win the tournament after beating Finland, while the Soviet Union took the Silver medal in a round-robin organized final. It wasn't until 1991 that the US again managed to beat the Soviet Union. Walt Disneys movie Miracle (2004) (Amazon) is about this Ice Hockey match.

Sports Illustrated did not see the need for any text to explain the picture because everyone knew what it was about anyways 

February 21st

On this day - 21st of February 1986 - The first Zelda game 

The first game the Legend of Zelda was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Zelda franchise is one of Nintendos main franchise. A new Nintendo platform is never complete without a Zelda game. The main character of Zelda games is usually Link and many people wrongly claims Link is Zelda but Zelda is the princess that Link is trying to rescue from Ganon. Zelda games are hugely popular with over 75 million copies of Zelda games sold. The Zelda games are known for clever puzzles,the music, and a character that gradually grows into the main hero. Like in the Nintendo64 game, you start as the young Link and later in the game you play as the adult Link. The entire series is known for its beautiful music Koji Kondo (composer of most of the music) is known for his music as one of the legends in video games creation. The puzzles sometimes even include the music as in the N64 game where you play melodies that causes changes in the game or even warps you to other places.  Shigeru Miyamoto the main game designer is known as one of the most influential game creators. With the beautiful music, clever puzzles and memorable moments Zelda games are games that we look forward to.  

Link in the first 3D Zelda game on Nintendo 64

January 20th

On this day - January 20th 1993 - Audrey Hepburn died 

Audrey Hepburn was an famous actress and fashion icon from Hollywoods Golden Age. She is probably best known for Breakfast at Tiffany's. Hepburn was born in Belgium in 1929, but died of cancer at only 63 years old. She rose to fame in 1953 in the movie Roman Holiday which she won an academy award for. She was later awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from BAFTA. The later parts of Hepburn's life was dedicated to UNICEF and humanitarian work, a work she received several awards for. She was married several times and had two kids.

"How shall I sum up my life? I think I've been particularly lucky."- Audrey Hepburn

February 19th

On this day - February 19th  1913 - Pedro Lascuráin became president for the shortest time in history

Pedro Lascuráin was appointed president of Mexico on February 19th when the former president, Madero, was overthrown by Victoriano Huerta. Pedro's appointmet as the 34th president of Mexico was mainly to keep some legitmacy for the New government in Mexico. He had worked as a minister during the previous government and he was thus in line for the role as president after Madero was forced to resign. Pedro Lascuráin was therfore appointed president just so he could appoint Victoriano Huerta as Interior minister and NeXT in line for the precidency. Pedro Lascuràin was tehrafter forced to resign so that Victoriano Huerta became the official president of Mexico. All in all, Pedro Lascuràin's precidency lasted for less than an hour and it is therfore the shortest regin as president for anyone in history.

February 18th

On this day - February 18th 1978 - The first Ironman Triathlon was held

The first Ironman Triathlon was held in Hawaii after a debate about who were the most fit athletes, swimmers, runners or bikers. The Ironman Triathlon World Championship has been held in the same Place ever since. It was also at this first event that the slogan "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life" were first used. This was a handwritten slogan on the participants course and rule description papers. 12 out of the 15 participants completed this first Iron Man Triathlon. Gordn Haller, a US navy, became the first Ironman by completing the race in 11 hours and 46 minuts. The runner up, John Dunbar, came in second after his support team resorted to giving him beer after they ran out of water on the last parts of the race. When the event was arranged again the Next year had the participant number increased to 50, and "Ironman's popularity have increased ever since.

February 17th

On this day - February 17th 1863 - The International Committee of the Red Cross was established

The Red Cross was founded by the Swiss Business man, Henry Dunant. The bacground for the establishment was Dunants experiences from the Battle of Solferino where around 40.000 soldiers from both sides were left dying and wounded on the Battle Field. What had original been a trip to discuss business With Napoleon III became a life changing experience for Dunant and the beginning of the Red Cross. Dunant organized a Committee With the title "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded". This Committee established what was later to be known as the red cross on 17th February 1863. The name, International Committee of the Red Cross was adopted in 1876. Henry Dunant was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

February 16

On this day - February 16th 1968 - The first 911 emergency system 

9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for any country using the North American Numbering Plan. Before the 911 number was agreed on people just opened the line and was set over to an operator. In an emergency they would simple state that it was an emergency and which branch of emergency they needed. The first emergency number was experimented with in 1937 in the UK with the number 999. The first emergency number in North America was in Canada using 999 again, but it was switched to 911 when it was proposed by the USA. In 1968 the number 9-1-1 was agreed upon and AT&T chose the number 9-1-1 and the first ever 9-1-1 call was made by Alabama speaker of the House Rankin Fite to U.S representativ Tom Bevill at the police station. Later in 1968 9-1-1 became the national emergency number for the entire United States. 

February 15th

On this day - February 15th 1965 - Canada adopts the red Maple leaf as its flag

In 1964 was a Committee established to develop a new flag for Canada. The country did not wish to continue to use the Union Flag from their period as a British Colony. In 1892 had the Canadian Red Ensign been approved for use by the British admiralty. This was a red flag, with the British Union Jack in the corner and the Canadian coats of arms in the center. Different Versions of this flag was in use until a new official flag was decided upon in 1965 after a huge debate in the country. The Maple leave flag was unanimously approved by the Committee and the maple have become a symbol assosiated with Canada today. A small, official, ceremony was held on February 15th in 1965 to inaugurate the new flag.

February 14th

On this day - February 14th 1929 - Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

Saint Valentine's day massacre is a name given to the murder of seven mob assosiates in Chicago. The baground for the murders were a conflict between Bugs Moran's "North Side" gang and Al Capone's "South Side" gang in Chicago. The conflict was mainly about smuggeling, in particular alchol, due to the prohbition in the US at the time. The victoms belonged to the North Side gang, an Irish-American criminal mob, while the South Side gang mainly consisted of the Italian mob. The seven mob members were lined up and shot by four of Al Capones gang members dressed as police and whiskey smuglers. Although Bugs Moran was not one of the seven who died were this the beginning of the end as his time and he was not able to keep his Territory after this massacre.

One of the mortally wounded mob members, Gusenberg, last Words were allegdely  “No one, nobody shot me.” when asked who shot him by the police.

The massacre has inspired several Movies and can be seen in several different mob and/or Chicago related Movies and tv shows. The best known is probably the 1967 Movie "The St. Valentine's day massacre".


Happy Valentinedays to all Our Readers!

Al Capone

 Bugs Moran

February 13th

On this day - February 13th 1978 - Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing

The Sydney Hilton hotell was hosting the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting when a bomb went of in a garbage bin/truck outside. The bomb, which was placed in a Garbage bin, went of when the bin was emptied into the truck. The two Garbage collectors were killed instantly, and a police officer guarding the hotel lounge died later of the injuries from the bomb. 11 other People were injured, but none of the participants at the Meeting were injured. A conspiracy theory have argued that the Australian Security forces were behind the attack. The arguments behind this includes for example the continuous police presence outside the hotel which would have prevented anyone from leaving a bombing the Garbage bin. The Garbage truck driver also claimed that police had stopped them from emptying the Garbage earlier in the day. The Garbage bins had also not been searched through for a bomb by the police, something which normally is common to do in a bomb search. In 1989 confessed a former member of the Ananda Marga to the bombing. He was served 8 years in prison for this, but his confession is not believed by many of the involved in the case.

Picture from wikipedia unknown owner

February 12th

On this day - February 12th 1993 -James Bulger were abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten year old boys

James Bulger was two years old when he was abducted from a shopping centre in England. His abducters were two ten year old boys, Jon and Robert. CCTV evidence from the shopping centre show the two boys observing children and probably selecting what they saw as an "appropriate" kid. James was out with his mum shopping when he was abducted. Jon and Robert took James on a 4km walk across Liverpool. He was later dropped on his head and tortured. James body was found on Railroad tracks two days after the murder. His body was severed by both the torture and trains.
On February 20th were the two murderes charged with murdere. In november were they found guilty and they became the youngest convicted murderes in modern English history.

February 11th

On this day - February 11th 2001- Anna Kournikova virus was written 

This computer worm was written by a Dutch programmer, Jan de Wit. The worm spread trough email and contained an attachment named "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs" the message reads "Hi: check this!". For the observant of you its obvious that the attachment is not a picture but a visual basic script file. The file was a program that got all your adresses from your outlook and then sent itself to all the adresses. The program does minimal damages on the system unlike the similar ILOVEYOU virus. By the time De Wit realised what he had created it was to late, he turned himself in to the police on February 14th. In the trial against De Wit the FBI submitted evidence and suggested that the worm caused 166 000USD in damages. De Wit claimed that he made the worm "without thinking and without overseeing the consequences" and denied intent to cause damages. His sentence was 150 hours of community service or 75 days in jail. In the popular tv series Friends episode "The one in Barbados" Chandler checks his email and the harddisk is erased. When asked what the email said he says "naked pictures of Anna Kournikova" however the computer was a Macintosh that would not have reacted to the worm and the original worm did not cause such damages. 

Anna Kournikova working on her backhand

  

February 10th

On this day - February 10th 1996 - "Deep Blue" became the first Artificial Intelligence to beat a world champion in Chess

Deep blue was a chess playing computer developed IBM. On February 10th the computer played agains the Russian world champion Garry Kasparov in a six game match. Kasparov was the world champion at the time and one of the best chess players through the times. Depp blue was a Project which had existed since 1989 in as an IBM Research Group. When the two played each other in Philadelphia in 1996 won Deep Blue the first of the six matches. This was the first time a computer were able to beat a world champion at chess. The second match, however, was won by Kasparov. The two next matches were a draw and the two last was again won by Kasparov, thus making the score 4-2 to Kasparov. The two played again in 1997, but this time With a heavily upgraded Version of Deep Blue. The score this time was 3,5 to Deep Blue against 2,5 to Kasparov.

 Kasparov vs Anand World Championship match, World Trade Center 1995. Photo by Owen Williams, The Kasparov Agency.

February 9th

On this day - February 9th 1986 - Halley's Comet last apperance

Halley's comet is the only short-period comet which can be clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth. It is also the only short-period comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime and the first to be recognized as a periodic comet. The comets periodicity was determined by Edmond Halley, a friend of Newton, in 1705 and the comet is therfore named after him. The last appearance was in 1986 and the next is estimated to be July 28th in 2061. The comet has been recorded by astronomers, possible as far back as 240 BC. There are also records by Chinese, Babylonian and medieval Europeans, but it was not established that they observed the same object at the time. In 1066 was the comet recorded in England as an omen about the future. Halley's 1986 apperance was the least favorable on record, because the comet and the Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun which created the worst viewing circumstances for observing the comet. The viewing possibilities for 2061 is expected to be a lot better.  The comet is mostly created from hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. 

NSSDC's Photo Gallery (NASA)

    

Kuiper Airborne Observatory, C141 aircraft April 8/9, 1986, New Zealand Expedition

February 8th

On this day - February 8th 1932 - Film Score composer John Williams was born

John Williams is an american musician and composer who are best known for his film scores. Some of his legendary scores includes Jaws, Star Wars, Harry Potter (1,2,3), E.T, Schindlers List and Indiana Jones.

Williams was born in New York in a very musical family. John Williams studied piano at the Juliard School and moved to Los Angeles to work as a film studio orchestrator and a studio pianist. His first film composition was in 1958 for the movie Daddy-O, but he soon achived recognition in Hollywood. In 1974 cooperated he on the movie "The Sugerland Express" with director Steven Spielberg. Williams have since composed the music for almost all of Spielbergs best known films.

John Williams have been nominated for 50 academy awards, which makes him the second most nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His first nomination was for Valley of the Dolls in 1967. His first win was in 1971 for Fiddler on the roof. His second academy award was for the well known, two note, suspencion score, in the movie Jaws. His third academy award was for the even better known score in Star Wars from 1977. His 50th academy award nomination was in 2015 for the new Star wars movie, The Force awakens. His next cooperation with Spielberg will be the movie "BFG" which permiers in 2016.

Happy Birthday, John Williams!

John Williams at  the Boston Pops, 28 May 2011, photo by Chris Devers

February 7th

On this day - February 7th 1964 - The Beatles landed in New York 

The popular band from Liverpool did not have the best start in the United States. Their record company was acting trough a subsidiary Capitol Records. Capitol Records hindered releases of Beatles singes by declining to issue their music. EMI changed to the local label Vee-Jay that ended up releasing some songs but not all. The contract with Vee-Jay was canceled when it came out that they did not report royalties on their sales. The Beatles started to gain traction after their manager Brian Epstein arranged a 40,000 USD marketing campaign in late 1963. On December 26 1963 their song "I want to Hold your Hand" was released and by mid January it had sold a million copies. When the Beatles left the UK there were an estimated 4000 fans gathered to see them off. When they landed in New York, on this date, there were 3000 people greeting them. They played the Ed Sullivan Show and a record 73 million viewers in 23 million households watched (34%). At the time it was the largest audience for an American tv show. In spite of this the day after the reviews were negative in the US. After their first concert however Beatlemania erupted and the show got great reviews. The Beatles visited the Ed Sullivan Show a second time before leaving for the UK on the 22nd of February. Their visit is called the "British Invasion", the rest is as we say history. 

The Beatles at John F. Kennedy airport

February 6th

On this day - February 6th 1958 - Several Manchester United players were killed in the Munich air disaster

On February 6th 1958 was the Manchester United fotball team, together with supporters and journalists, returning from a match in Belgrade. The match in the European Cup had ended 3-3 which gave Manchester United a shot at the semi-final. The team's returnflight back to Manchester stopped in Munich to refuel, but in the wintery weather did not everything go according to the plan. The airplane crashed on its third attempt at take off from the Munich-Riem airport due to the slush on the runway. The airplane skidded of the end of the runway, crashed into a fence and finally hit a truck filled with fuel wich exploded. 23 of the people onboard died in the accident, while 21 people survived. It took Manchester United several years to recover from the accident, and to again have a shot at winning the the Euorpean Cup.

The Manchester united players who died were Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Coleman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg,Tommy Taylor and Liam "Billy" Wheland. A plaque and a clock can be found on Old Trafford in memory of the accident and the lives in claimed. The Munich tunnel at Old Trafford was named so on the 50th anniversary of the accident.

February 5th

On this day - February 5th 1971 - The Apollo 14 mission landed on the moon 

Commander Alan Shepard, commander Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and  Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on January 31, 1971. When they landed on the moon it was the third moon landing. The Apollo mission series placed man on the moon six times and Apollo 17 is the last time there have been people on the Moon. Shepard and Mitchell made their decent in the original target for Apollo 13 who aborted its mission. The lessons learned by Apollo 13 caused Apollo 14 to be changed to not repeat the accident.  During their mission they collected 42.80 Kg of Moon rocks. Shepard even made time for hitting two golf balls with a makeshift club. Mitchell and Shepard spent 33.5 hours on the Moon. Commander Roosa never sat foot on the Moon, he stayed behind doing experiments and took photos.  When the mission returned to Earth they landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9th.

Alan Shepard next to the American Flagg 

February 4th

On this day - February 4th 2004 - Facebook is founded 

Love it or hate it; today Facebook celebrates 11 years since its foundation. Initially, the first social site that founder Mark Zuckerberg built at Harvard was Facemash, a page where two photos were pulled up and the user would choose the "hotter" person. The site used hacked images from Harvards private dormitory ID images and was quickly reported to the Harvard administration. The page managed 450 visitors and over 22000 photo views in the first 4 hours. On February 4th 2004 Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook". Six days after the launch three Harvard students came forward claiming Zuckerberg mislead them into believing that he would help them build their own social network site called the Harvard Connection. In 2008 they settled a lawsuit against Zuckerberg for 1.2 million shares of the company (300 million USD at the time). Initially Facebook was limited to registered students at Harvard but expanded to other colleges and later the entire world. Facebook have had some controversies, but it is the biggest social network on the web. You can like Facebook or not but you cannot deny that it has changed the world and how we communicate and connect with each other. 

Facebook has changed since one of the first versions 

Februar 3

On this day - February 3 1931 - The worst natural disaster in New Zealand 

In the morning of Februar 3 started an earthquake in the Hawke's Bay region in  New Zealand. 256 people died in the disaster, which made it into the most deadly natural disaster in New Zealands history. Nearly all the buildings in the area was destroyed in the earthquake and the fire which followed. A group of prisoners working nearby, had the chance to escaped but decided to stay to help dig out the prisoners who were trapped in the landmasses. The earthquake led to a review of the building codes for New Zealand and several of the buildings were re-enforced after the disaster.

February 2

On this day - Feburary 2 1536 - Buenos Aires was founded 

The capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, was founded by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza. Mendoza was a Spanish explorer who in 1529 offered to travel to South America to establish Spanish colonies on his own expense. Buenos Aires was first given the name Ciudad de Nuesta Señora Santa Maria del Buen Ayr. In the 17th century became the shorter Buenos Aires the common used name for the city. The first Spanish settlement was driven away by the indigenous already in 1542. It wasn't until 1580 that a permanent settlement in Buenos Aires was established. In 1816 declared Argentina its independence and in 1880 was Buenos Aires selected as the country's capital. It is today the biggest city in Argentina, and one of the biggest in South America.

February 1st

On this day - February 1st 1946 - Trygve Lie was appointed the first Secretary General of the United Nation  

Trygve Lie was an Norwegian politician who had participated in the Norwegian government in exile in UK during the Second World War. He was also the leader of the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations meetings in 1945 and 1946. At the point was Galdwyn Jebb acting as the Secretary General, because no one had been appointed to the position yet. On February 1st was Trygve Lie appointed to the position as a compromises between the greater nations. Lie was re-elected in 1950, although without Soviets support at this time. By 1952 was he forced to resign due to the Soviet Unions disapproval of his involvement in the Korean war. He has been both criticized and apprised for his work in the UN, and he wrote the book IN THE CAUSE OF PEACE: Seven Years with the United Nations about his experiences s the first secretary general. Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld took over as Secretary General after Lie. The current Secretary General is Ban Ki-Moon from South Korea.