The Atlantic: Paul-Henri Spaak
- #news
- #headline
Figure timeline
Paul-Henri Spaak
Paul-Henri Charles Spaak was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat, and statesman who thrice served as the prime minister of Belgium and later as the second secretary general of NATO. Nicknamed "Mr. Europe", he was a leader in the formation of the institutions that evolved into the current European Union, along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
sports · Belgian politician (1899–1972) · politician · diplomat · tennis player · lawyer · also Paul-Henri Spaak, Paul-Henri Charles Spaak, Spaak
Born 25 January 1899 · Died 31 July 1972 · Q155691
54 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
4 photos
🔊 How to say “Paul-Henri Spaak”
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Award
- Award
2022· 1 entry
2019· 1 entry
ArchDaily: Architectural Design Competition - Renewal of Paul-Henri Spaak building
- #news
- #headline
1981· 1 entry
As chief of staff for Gaston Thorn, president of the European Commission, until he became the victim of his wife's murder–suicide on 18 July 1981
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1972· 2 entries
Died 1972-07-31.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“There are only two types of state in Europe: small states, and small states that have not yet realized they are small.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:pt
1969· 1 entry
Published his memoirs in two volumes titled Combats inachevés ("The Continuing Battle", literally, "unfinished fights")
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1966· 1 entry
Was instrumental in the selection of Brussels as the new headquarters
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1965· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Development Cooperation (1965–1965).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1963· 2 entries
Awarded Companion of Honour (1963).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon (1963).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1962· 1 entry
France, under de Gaulle, attempted to block both British entry to the European Communities and undermine their supranational foundation with the Fouchet Plan, Spaak working with Joseph Luns of the Netherlands rebuffed th
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1961· 3 entries
Won Medal of Freedom presented by John F. Kennedy (1961).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium (1961–1966).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Minister of Foreign Affairs in Belgium (1961–1966).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1957· 2 entries
Awarded Charlemagne Prize (1957).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Career landmark: Secretary General of NATO (1957–1961).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1956· 4 entries
Awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1956).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1956).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
And led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaties of Rome establishing a European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Was chosen by the Council of NATO to succeed Lord Ismay as secretary general
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1955· 3 entries
Awarded Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (1955).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Was appointed to the so-called Spaak Committee studying the possibility of a common market within Europe and played an influential role in preparing the 1957 Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Comm
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The Messina Conference of European leaders appointed him as chairman of a preparatory committee (Spaak Committee) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1954· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Foreign Affairs in Belgium (1954–1957).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1953· 1 entry
Career landmark: Mayor of Saint-Gilles - Sint-Gillis (1953–1957).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1952· 1 entry
Awarded doctor honoris causa from the University of Aix-Marseille (1952).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1949· 3 entries
Awarded Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross (1949).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Career landmark: Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1949–1954).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1949–1951).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1948· 2 entries
Helped organize a Congress that met in The Hague and pressed hard for the creation of the Council of Europe
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
In Paris, Spaak apostrophized the delegation of the Soviet Union with the famous words: "peur de vous" (fear of you)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1947· 1 entry
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Belgium (1947–1949).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1946· 2 entries
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Belgium (1946–1946).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: President of the United Nations General Assembly (1946–1947).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1945· 2 entries
When he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Was chosen to chair the first session of the General Assembly of the new United Nations
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1943· 1 entry
Malevez was arrested by the Gestapo as a member of a resistance movement and imprisoned for a few weeks in Saint-Gilles Prison in Brussels
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1942· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Mobility (1942–1943).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1939· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Foreign Affairs in Belgium (1939–1949).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1938· 4 entries
Awarded Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion (1938).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (1938).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Career landmark: Prime Minister of Belgium (1938–1939).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Allowed Herman Van Breda to smuggle the legacy of Edmund Husserl out of Nazi Germany to Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1937· 1 entry
Awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1937).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1936· 3 entries
To agricultural, horticultural and forestry undertakings
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Belgian Minister of Foreign Trade (1936–1939).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Minister of Foreign Affairs in Belgium (1936–1939).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1935· 2 entries
Career landmark: Minister of Mobility (1935–1936).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Entered the cabinet of Paul Van Zeeland as Minister of Transport
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1932· 2 entries
Career landmark: member of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium (1932–1957).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
For the Belgian Workers' Party (later the Belgian Socialist Party) and gained his first ministerial portfolio in the government of Paul Van Zeeland in 1935
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1921· 1 entry
And had three children: diplomat Fernand Spaak (1923–1981), Marie Marguerite Spaak (1926–2000, later married British diplomat Michael Palliser), and Antoinette Spaak (1928–2020), the first Belgian woman to lead a politic
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1914· 1 entry
Spaak attempted to join the Belgian Army but was captured and spent the next two years as a prisoner of war in Germany
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1899· 1 entry
Born 1899-01-25.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth