1926

International Sanitary Convention is revised to include provisions against smallpox and typhus.

1935

International Sanitary Convention for aerial navigation comes into force.

1938

Last International Sanitary Conference held in Paris. Conseil Sanitaire, Maritime et Quarantinaire at Alexandria is handed over to Egypt. (The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean is its lineal descendant).

1945

United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco unanimously approves a proposal by Brazil and China to establish a new, autonomous, international health organization.

1946

International Health Conference in New York approves the Constitution of the WHO.

1947

WHO Interim Commission organizes assistance to Egypt to combat cholera epidemic.

1948

WHO Constitution comes into force on 7 April (now marked as World Health Day each year), when the 26th of the 61 Member States who signed it ratified its signature. Later, the First World Health Assembly is held in Geneva with delegations from 53 Governments that by then were Members.

1951

Text of new International Sanitary Regulations adopted by the Fourth World Health Assembly, replacing the previous International Sanitary Conventions.

1969

These are renamed the International Health Regulations, excluding louse-bourne typhus and relapsing fever, and leaving only cholera, plague, smallpox and yellow fever.

1973

Report from the Executive Board concludes that there is widespread dissatisfaction with health services. Radical changes are needed. The Twenty-sixth World Health Assembly decides that WHO should collaborate with, rather than assist, its Member States in developing practical guidelines for national health-care systems.

1974

WHO launches an Expanded Programme on Immunization to protect children from poliomyelitis, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and tuberculosis.

1977

Thirtieth World Health Assembly sets as target: that the level of health to be attained by the turn of the century should be that which will permit all people to lead a socially and economically productive life: Health for All by the Year 2000.

1978

Joint WHO/UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) International Conference in Alma-Ata, USSR, adopts a Declaration on Primary Health care as the key to attaining the goal of Health for All by the Year 2000.

1979

United Nations General Assembly, as well as the Thirty-second World Health Assembly, reaffirms that health is a powerful lever for socioeconomic development and peace.

1979

A Global Commission certifies the worldwide eradication of smallpox, the last known natural case having occurred in 1977.

1981

Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000 is adopted, and is endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly, which urges other international organizations concerned to collaborate with WHO.

1987

United Nations General Assembly expresses concern over the spread of the AIDS pandemic. The Global Programme on AIDS is launched within WHO.

1988

Fortieth Anniversary of WHO is celebrated. Forty-first World Health Assembly resolves that poliomyelitis will be eradicated by the year 2000.

1993

Children’s Vaccine Initiative launched with UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

1996

WHO Centre for Health Development opened in Kobe, Japan.

1998

50th Anniversary of the Signing of the WHO Constitution.