The Life and Death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10 April 1953 until 18 September 1961, when he died in a plane crash while on a peace mission in the Congo. He was born on 29 July 1905 in Jönköping in south-central Sweden.

Serving two terms as the UN chief, the man many considered to be the peacemaker of the 20th century carried out a wide range of responsibilities in the course of efforts to prevent war and serve the other aims of the UN Charter.

As new evidence emerges about his death, UN Photo curated a collection from our archive depicting the man, the legend and the Secretary-General.

“Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.” - Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

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UN Photo/Peder Hammarskjöld

 

Left: Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld photographed in front of UN Headquarters.
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Right: The General Assembly met on 10 April 1953 to install Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden as Secretary-General of the United Nations. The new UN chief delivered his inaugural address from the speaker's rostrum. 
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New York City honours UN Secretary-General Hammarskjöld at start of second term with a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, attended by 700 business and political figures. 
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Left: Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld held a press conference at UN Headquarters.
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Centre: Mr. Hammarskjöld arrived in Gaza on 23 December 1958 to spend Christmas with the troops of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF).  
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Right: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld and Under-Secretary-General Ralph Bunche in conversation while on their way to a meeting of the Assembly's First Committee.
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Left: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld and United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) Commander Gen. E.L.M. Burns aboard the UNEF plane that took them to El Arish, Egypt, from where he is scheduled to depart for Khartoum, Sudan.
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Right: Mr. Hammarskjöld smokes his pipe while attending a meeting of a UN General Assembly main committee. 
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UN Photo/Albert Fox

Left: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld is visiting New Zealand, nearing the end of his six-week tour of the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific. Here he climbs Mount Ruapehu, a 9,000 ft. extinct volcano at Chateau Tongario, with George Ivan Smith, Director of UN Information Centre in London.
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Upper right: Mr. Hammarskjöld takes a photograph of the site of the Adaminaby Dam, which is under construction.
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Lower right: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld and party during a visit to the Acropolis. 
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Left: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld arrived in Katanga on 12 August 1960 for talks with Katanga authorities and Belgian representatives concerning the modalities of the withdrawal of the Belgian troops and the deployment of the UN Force. Here at Elisabethville Airport on 14 August prior to his return to Leopoldville.
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UN Photo/HP

Right: The Security Council, early in morning of 17 September 1960, decided to call the UN General Assembly into an emergency special session that night on the situation in the Congo. This action followed the Council's failure to adopt any resolution of its own on UN operations in the Congo.  Here, Secretary General Hammarskjöld addresses the Council. At right is M. Egidio Ortona of Italy, Council President for the current month.
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Secretary-General Hammarskjöld arrives in Leopoldville on 13 September 1961, in response to an invitation by Premier Cyrille Adoula, to discuss United Nations aid and support to the Republic of the Congo. Mr. Hammarskjöld inspects a Guard of Honour of the UN Force in the Congo shortly after his arrival at Njili Airport. At his side is Premier Adoula and, beside the Premier, Dr. Sture Linner, Chief of UN Civilian Operations in the Congo.
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UN Photo/BZ

Left: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld during the playing of the national anthem of the Republic of the Congo shortly after his arrival at Njili Airport on 13 September 1961. At right is Premier Cyrille Adoula.
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UN Photo/BZ

Upper right: Secretary-General Hammarskjöld (right) awaits the arrival of Congolese Premier Cyrille Adoula at the Premier's residence in Leopoldville for a consultation on the Katanga problem in September 1961. With him are Congolese vice-premier Antoine Gizenga (back to camera), Heinrich A. Wieschhoff, Advisor to the Secretary-General on African affairs (left, background), and Dr. Sture Linner, Officer-in-Charge of UN Operations in the Congo (right, background).
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Lower right: The plane carrying Secretary-General Hammarskjöld crashed on 17 September 1961, killing all on board. The site of the crash in Ndola, Zambia, is marked by a cairn.
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UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
 

Dignitaries from many lands came to the Swedish town of Uppsala on 29 September 1961 for the funeral service of the late UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Uppsala – the ecclesiastical capital of Sweden – is the place where Dag Hammarskjöld was raised.

Left: Walking to the graveside in the Uppsala Cemetery are (from left) Abba Eban, Minister of Education and Culture of Israel; Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India, who was President of the 8th General Assembly Session; and Trygve Lie of Norway, the UN’s first Secretary-General.
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UN Photo/GG

Right: The coffin with the body of the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld arrives in the cemetery of Uppsala. Following the coffin are brothers Bo (front, with wife) and Sten Hammarskjöld (with daughter, Marlene), then Knut Hammarskjöld, a nephew. 
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UN Photo/GG

The stained-glass "peace window" designed by the French artist Marc Chagall in memory of the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and all those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
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UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

"It will not surprise you to hear that Dag Hammarskjöld is a figure of great importance to me - as he must be for any Secretary-General.  His life and his death, his words and his action have done more to shape public expectations of the office, and indeed of the Organization, than those of any other man or woman in its history." -  UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 6 September 2001