ABSTRACT
The Dumbarton Oaks conference produced a set of proposals which were put before a conference held in San Francisco on 25-26 June 1945 and, after certain amendments had been agreed, a charter was signed by 50 of the 51 founder members, on 26 June 1945. Poland, although a founder member, did not sign it at the time but did so at a later date. The United Nations officially came into being on 24 October 1945, which is now celebrated annually as United Nations Day. Membership is open to all peace-loving nations and in 1999 stood at 185. In 1999 Tonga applied to become the UN's 186th member. The names of member states and the dates of their admission are shown in Table 76.
