Norwegian Politician, Author, and 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was born in Christiania (now Oslo) Norway. His father was a carpenter who emigrated to the US in 1902 and was never heard from again. His mother ran a boarding house and café in Grorud, near Oslo and he grew up in simple circumstances. A socialist at an early age, he joined the Norwegian Labor Party in 1911 and became its national secretary upon graduating from the University Of Oslo with a law degree in 1919. From 1919 to 1921 he was editor-in chief of the Labor Party's periodical "The 20th Century" and from 1922 to 1935 he was a legal consultant for the Workers' National Trade Union (now the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) and chaired the Norwegian Workers' Confederation of Sports from 1931 to 1935. He was appointed Minister of Justice when a Labor party government was formed by Johan Nygaardsvold in 1935. The same year he granted permission for the exiled Soviet Union Communist leader Leon Trotsky to enter Norway but under constant pressure from Joseph Stalin he was placed under house arrest and eventually exiled to Mexico. In 1937 he was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Akershus and was later appointed Minister of Trade (July-October 1939) and Minister of Supplies October 1939 to 1941). When Nazi Germany invaded Norway in April 1940 he ordered all Norwegian ships to sail to Allied ports. In 1941 he was named as Foreign Minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile (established in England), remaining in that position until 1946. He led the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations (UN) conference in San Francisco in 1945 and was prominent in drafting the provisions of the UN Security Council. As the leader of the of the Norwegian delegation to the UN general assembly in 1946, he was elected as its first Secretary General. While in that position he supported the formations of Israel and Indonesia, as well as the withdrawals of Soviet forces in Iran, a ceasefire to the fighting in the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, and allow the People's Republic of China to be recognized by the UN after the Nationalist government was exiled to Taiwan. In 1950 he solicited support for the defense of South Korea after it was invaded and when the Soviet Union boycotted the UN meetings, he worked to bring it to an end though his involvement had little to do with the Soviet Union's eventual return. In November 1950 his term as UN Secretary-General was extended despite objections from the Soviet Union who then refused to acknowledge him in that position. He was often criticized for his failures to facilitate negotiation in the Berlin Blockade and to bi=ring about a quicker end to the Korean War. On November 10, 1952 he resigned his position and returned to Norway, where he served as the county governors of Oslo and Akershus and was the Chairman of the Board of Energy, the Minister of Energy, and Minister of Trade and Shipping. He died of a heart attack in Geilo, Norway at the age of 72. Among the many honors and awards he received include the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olaf (1953), the Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog (1954), and the Norwegian highest civilian award Medal for Outstanding Service (1966). A statue in his honor was erected at the Furuset Center in Oslo in 1994. He was also the author of 8 books written from 1933 to 1968.