Thant, known honorifically as U Thant, was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position.
17 Facts About U Thant
2.
At the age of eleven U Thant participated in strikes against the University Act of 1920.
3.
When U Thant was fourteen, his father died and a series of inheritance disputes forced U Thant's mother, Nan Thaung, and her four children into difficult financial times.
4.
In 1931, U Thant won first place in All Burma Teachership Examination and became the school's headmaster by the age of twenty-five.
5.
However, U Thant did not have any real power, and returned to Pantanaw.
6.
When teaching the Japanese language was made compulsory in Pantanaw high schools, U Thant defied the orders and cooperated with the growing anti-Japanese resistance.
7.
The Karen insurgency began and U Thant risked his life to go to Karen camps to negotiate for peace.
8.
From 1951 to 1957, U Thant was secretary to the prime minister, writing speeches for U Nu, arranging his foreign travel, and meeting foreign visitors.
9.
In 1961, U Thant was named Chairman of the UN Congo Commission.
10.
In less than one year in office, U Thant faced a critical challenge to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis, the moment when the world came closest to a nuclear war.
11.
In November 1962, the General Assembly voted unanimously to promote U Thant from Acting Secretary-General to Secretary-General for a term ending on November 3,1966.
12.
For personal reasons, U Thant wanted his term to end five years from his initial appointment, and he would henceforth consider his first five years in office to be a single term.
13.
On January 23,1971, U Thant categorically announced that he would "under no circumstances" be available for a third term as secretary-general.
14.
Unlike his two predecessors, U Thant retired after ten years on speaking terms with all the big powers.
15.
Regardless of the reasons, Ne Win ordered for U Thant to be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.
16.
The coffin of U Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery.
17.
When he was informed that the 1965 Nobel Prize would instead go to UNICEF due to Chairman Gunnar Jahn's veto, U Thant, according to Walter Dorn, "recorded his pleasure".