My Science School

          UNICEF was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 11th December 1946. It was originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The headquarters of UNICEF is in New York.

          The Polish physician Ludwik Rajchman is widely regarded as the founder of UNICEF, and served as its first chairman from 1946.

          UNICEF serves in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of children. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. As part of these efforts, UNICEF built thousands of health stations in the third world and launched projects to ensure school attendance for children and adolescents.

          Nineteen years after its founding, UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 26th October 1965. UNICEF serves as the primary source of distribution for essential items such as vaccines and nutritional supplements.

Picture credit: google

            Martin Luther King Jr. is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of non-violence and civil disobedience, and inspired by the non-violent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1957, King Jr. was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

            Later in 1963, King was one of the driving forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known as the ‘March on Washington’, which drew a quarter-million people to the national mall.

            In 1964, 35-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech in Oslo is thought by many to be among the most powerful remarks ever delivered at the event- “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant”.

            He was assassinated on 4th April 1968.

Picture credit: google

            Arthur Henderson was born on 13th September 1863 in England. He disagreed with those politicians who believed Germany should be harshly treated after the First World War, and as a result of the nationalist  fervour of the 1918 general election, he los

t his seat.

            After the 1929 general election victory, Ramsay MacDonald appointed Henderson as his Foreign Secretary. In this post Henderson attempted to reduce political tensions in Europe. Diplomatic relations were re-established with the Soviet Union and Henderson gave his full support to the League of Nations by arguing for international arbitration, demilitarization, and collective security.

            A strong believer in arbitration and industrial co-operation, Henderson opposed the formation of the General Federation of Trade Unions as he believed it would increase the frequency of industrial disputes.

            In 1934, his work was recognized when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Arthur Henderson died on 20th October 1935, in London.

Picture credit: google

 

          Sir Norman Angell was an English economist. He was one of the principal founders of the Union of Democratic Control (UDC). The UDC was a British pressure group formed during the First World War to press for a more responsive foreign policy.

          Angell served in the Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He was an executive for the World Committee against War and Fascism. He was also a member of the executive committee of the League of Nations Union. From the mid-1930s, Angell actively campaigned for collective international opposition to the aggressive policies of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

          He was born on 26th December 1872 in England. Angell won the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1933 for his initiatives for international peace.

          He invented ‘The Money Game’, a series of card games using paper money to teach the fundamentals of currency and credit. A lifelong bachelor, he died at ninety-four in a home for the aged in Croydon, England.

Picture credit: google

            Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. He was born in Staunton, Virginia. Woodrow Wilson was one of America’s greatest presidents. He won the Peace Prize for 1919 as the leading architect behind the League of Nations. The organization facilitated greater security and cooperation among nations during the First World War.

            Wilson became the President of the US in 1913. After the outbreak of war in 1914, it was Wilson’s policy to keep the United States out. In the early days of World War I, Wilson was determined to maintain neutrality. Germany’s unrestricted submarine offensive sank American ships, and in 1917, Wilson took the US into the war. His major failure was when the Senate declined to approve American acceptance of the League of Nations.

            Nevertheless, the peace initiatives made by Woodrow Wilson won him the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1919. Wilson, who had suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919, could not attend the ceremony in Oslo.

Picture credit: google

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is based in Geneva. The International Committee of the Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 190 National Societies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963 — on the third occasion jointly with the League of Red Cross Societies.

The League of Red Cross Societies was founded in 1919, the year after the end of World War I. The initiative came from Henry P. Davison, President of the American Red Cross.

In 1993, the League was renamed the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The Red Cross has its unique signature in the history of Nobel Prizes as no other organization has been awarded the peace prize this often.

Picture credit: google

            After 1870, a popular peace movement grew up, and spread in Europe and the USA. They campaigned for disarmament and for the use of mediation and arbitration as the solution of international disputes. In due course a need was felt for an office that could coordinate and direct these activities.

            The International Peace Bureau (IPB), founded in 1891, was established under the initiative of Dane Fredrik Bajer. The central office set up in Geneva, Switzerland acted as the executive organ of the International Union of Peace Societies.

            The Bureau’s mission was to coordinate activities of various societies, and promote peaceful solutions to international conflicts. IPB is one of the world’s oldest international peace federations. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for acting as a link between peace societies of various countries. In 1913, Henri La Fontaine was also awarded the Prize for his service as the president of IPB. Significantly, eleven other Nobel Peace Prize laureates have been members of the International Peace Bureau.

Picture credit: google

          Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War in the year 1906. But he was best remembered as the 26th President of the United States.

          He was born in New York City on 27th October 1858 in one of the old Dutch families settled in America. At the age of 42, Roosevelt became the youngest man to assume the US presidency, following the assassination of President William McKinley. He won a second term in 1904.

          As the President of the US, he played a prominent role in peace initiatives. In 1902, Roosevelt initiated Permanent Court of Arbitration, set up at The Hague, Netherlands. Roosevelt also played a prominent part in extending the use of arbitration to international problems.

          Roosevelt was a prolific author; writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system.

          His prodigious literary output includes 26 books, over a thousand magazine articles, thousands of speeches and letters. 

Picture credit: google

               Bertha Suttner, the first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize, was an Austrian-Bohemian pacifist and novelist. She became the second female Nobel laureate in 1905, after Marie Curie in 1903. She is also the first  Austrian laureate.

               Bertha Suttner was born on 9th June 1843, in Austrian Empire. She wrote one of the nineteenth century’s most influential books, the anti-war novel ‘Lay down Your Arms’ (1889). The book was published in 37 editions and translated into 12 languages. The effect of the book was consequently so real that the impact made on the reading public was tremendous.

               Bertha became an active leader in the peace movement. She corresponded regularly with Alfred Nobel, and is believed to have inspired his decision to establish a prize for peace in his will. In 1892, with A.H. Fried, she initiated the peace journal Die Waffen Nieder, remaining its editor till the end. She died on June 21st, 1914.

Picture credit: google

 

               William Randal Cremer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1903 for his work with the international arbitration movement.

               William Randal Cremer was born on 18th March 1828, in England. He grew up in poverty, and faced many hardships during his childhood.

               Later, he was elected as a Member of Parliament. Cremer advanced his passionate belief that peace was the only acceptable state for mankind, and arbitration the method by which it could be achieved.

               It was the Franco-Prussian War, which led to Cremer’s involvement with the peace movement. A public meeting of working men was held in London to oppose any intervention by Britain in the conflict.

               A ‘peace committee’ was appointed of which Cremer was general secretary. This became the Workmen’s Peace Association (WPA), which later became the International Arbitration League.

              Cremer died on 22nd July, 1908.

Picture credit: google

 

               Frederic Passy was an economist and a peace activist who received the first Nobel Peace Prize, along with Henry Dunant, in 1901.

               Passy was born in Paris, France, on 20th May 1822. Passy’s work for peace began during the Crimean War. His essays and lectures, which came out in 1857, made him famous throughout the country.

               Passy was also one of the founders of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization for cooperation between the elected representatives of different countries.

               Despite his age, Passy kept up his work for peace. In 1905, when the conflict over the union between Sweden and Norway peaked, Passy declared that a peaceful solution would make him a hundred times happier than when he received the Nobel Prize. Passy witnessed his wish fulfilled. His endurance of a life-time for world peace gained him the name ‘apostle of peace’. He died on 12th June 1912.

Picture credit: google

Henry Dunant was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Frederic Passy, in 1901. He was a Swiss businessman and social activist, and above all, the founder of the Red Cross.

In 1859, a battle was raging in the town of Solferino in Northern Italy, which resulted in nearly 40,000 casualties. Henry witnessed thousands of Italian, French and Austrian soldiers wounded and dead. On his own initiative, he organized emergency aid services for the wounded. In 1863, he founded the International Committee for the relief of the wounded, now known as the International Committee of the Red Cross. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant’s ideas.

Having gone bankrupt, Dunant later ended up in the Swiss village of Heiden, where he fell ill. A journalist wrote an article about him which, within a few days, was reprinted in the press throughout Europe.

In 1901, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Henry Dunant died on 30th October, 1910. The Red Cross has been awarded the Peace Prize three times till date.

Picture credit: google

The Nobel Prize winners are announced annually either in October or November. The selection process begins in the previous year. Each year, thousands of universities and national representatives are asked to submit nominations for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year.

Self-nomination automatically disqualifies the nominee. Prize proposals must be submitted to the Nobel Committees on or before 31st January of the award year. After that, the six Nobel Committees, one for each category, start their work on the nominations received. During September, the committees submit their recommendations.

The final decisions on the prizes are usually made by 15th November.

Picture credit: google

               The Nobel Prize is undoubtedly the world’s most prestigious award. The prizes are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee, to individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, economic sciences and physiology.

               The prize distribution in all categories, except in peace, takes place annually in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.

               10th December is the Nobel Day. At the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall that day, the winners in physics, chemistry, physiology, economic sciences and literature receive a medal from the King of Sweden, as well as a diploma, and a cash award.

               The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo City Hall on the same day.

Picture credit: google

 

               The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards given in the intellectual realm for exceptional contributions in certain selected fields. These coveted prizes are annually awarded by Swedish and Norwegian institutions.

               The foundations for the Nobel Prizes were laid in 1895, when Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel instructed that most of his fortune be set aside as a fund for the awarding of five annual prizes.

               Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honouring men and women from all around the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, literature, physiology or medicine, and for contributions to peace. The first distribution of the prizes took place on 10th December 1901, on the fifth death anniversary of Alfred Nobel. In 1968, an additional award in Economic Sciences was introduced by Sweden’s central bank in memory of Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in 1969.

Picture credit: google