1960 — The UN's First War

On July 14, 1960, the United Nations became a peacekeeping force in earnest. Two weeks after Congo's independence, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba begged the world for help as Belgian troops intervened and Katanga broke away. That day the Security Council passed Resolution 143, calling on Belgium to withdraw its troops.

The resolution created the ONUC mission, the UN's first large-scale peacekeeping operation, and nearly 20,000 soldiers from thirty countries would deploy. The mission soon turned deadly: Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash trying to negotiate peace, and Lumumba himself was assassinated before the long and deadly crisis in Congo finally ended.