Back in the Day: the League of Nations

November 15, 1920 The first general Assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva with delegations of the 42 founding member states. The League was created with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and its principle objective was to maintain peace in a world that had just emerged ravaged from the Great War of 1914-1918. Although the League did manage to resolve some territorial and diplomatic disputes that lingered after the end of the war, it proved toothless and ineffective in the inter-war period. The Spanish Civil War, the rise of Nazism in Germany and World War II showed up the League’s failures and it was dissolved in 1946, to be replaced with the United Nations. Ironically, US president Woodrow Wilson was instrumental in the creation of the League of Nations, and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. But he was unable to persuade Congress to allow the United States to join as a member.

Also on November 15: Brazil is declared a republic (1889); Elvis Presley makes his film debut in ‘Love Me Tender’ (1956); signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985).

Born on November 15: Petula Clark (1932), Daniel Barenboim (1942), Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad (1945).

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