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Some Historic Events that Took Place in the House of the Americas

• In May 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the future House of the Americas in front of five thousand people. On April 26, 1910, U.S. President William Taft inaugurated the House of the Americas and planted the Tree of Peace, which is still located in the Aztec Patio inside the building. He then dedicated the building to the 21 countries that then formed the Pan-American Union, predecessor of the current Organization of American States (OAS).

• On October 14, 1959, the agreement that established the creation of the Inter-American Development Bank was ratified, entering into force on December 30 of that year. The IADB is nowadays a cornerstone of the Inter-American System, headed by the OAS. Currently the Bank is comprised of 47 member countries, 26 of them from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 21 countries outside the region whose mission is to fight poverty and promote social equity.

• On September 7, 1977, in the Hall of the Americas were signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties: the Panama Canal Treaty and the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal. With them sovereignty of the Canal, which had been in U.S. hands since its opening in 1903, was gradually transferred to Panama. The final transfer of sovereignty to Panama was made on December 31, 1999, during the administration of President Mireya Moscoso.

• On October 6, 1979, Pope John Paul II visited the OAS main building. In his speech in front of thousands of people he said: "The fact that the American continent has an organization charged with ensuring better continuity in the dialogue between governments, to promote peace, to promote the full development in solidarity and to protect people, their dignity and their rights, is a factor that benefits the entire human family."

• In the halls of the House of the Americas were conducted all negotiations for peace between El Salvador and Honduras in the so-called "Soccer War." On July 20, 1969 at the OAS was signed the "ceasefire" between the two nations. On October 30, 1980, the “General Peace Treaty between El Salvador and Honduras” was signed in Lima, Peru, by which both countries accepted the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice to solve their territorial dispute, and agreed on re-establishing diplomatic relations after eleven years.

• On February 5, 1999, the presidents of Ecuador, Jamil Mahuad, and of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, met in the Hall of the Americas four months after signing the "Act of Peace,” which ended the territorial dispute involving the Amazon and Andes region that the two nations had held since their independence in the early nineteenth century.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-E-7/10