50 Fun Facts About Red Cross

Which Swiss businessman co-founded the Red Cross after witnessing the aftermath of a battle in 1859?

He was on his way to petition Napoleon III about a business venture in Algeria when he stumbled onto the carnage.

The 1859 battle whose wounded inspired the Red Cross was fought near which Italian town?

It was the last major battle in history in which every army was personally commanded by its monarch.

What was the title of the 1862 book in which Dunant proposed a neutral relief society for the wounded?

He published it with his own money; Geneva lawyer Gustave Moynier read it and put it before the Geneva Society for Public Welfare.

Roughly what share of the ICRC's staff today are not Swiss citizens?

The committee itself is based in Geneva and its governing members are Swiss.

In what year was the international movement founded, seven years before the British Red Cross?

The founding conference resolutions called for national relief societies, neutrality for the wounded and a common protective sign.

Which renowned Swiss Army general sat on the original Committee of Five with Dunant?

The others were lawyer Gustave Moynier and doctors Louis Appia and Théodore Maunoir.

How many Nobel Peace Prizes has the International Committee of the Red Cross won?

They came in 1917, 1944 and 1963; only the UN refugee agency has also won more than once.

Which French pacifist shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with the Red Cross co-founder?

Dunant had spent decades in poverty after a business scandal and expulsion from the committee; his prize money was banked in Norway away from his creditors.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day is celebrated on 8 May because it is what?

He was born in Geneva on 8 May 1828; the first Red Cross Day was held in 1948.

In which Swiss village did Dunant spend his final years and die in 1910?

A Henry Dunant Museum now stands there.

Besides the Red Cross, which other organisation did Dunant help found, starting its Geneva chapter in 1852?

He was later expelled from it after his business failure.

The Red Cross emblem was created by reversing the colours of which national flag?

American hospitals and ski patrols annoyingly flip it back to a white cross on red, which suggests a Swiss link.

Which state first used the Red Crescent in the 1870s?

It was formally recognised as a protective symbol by a 1929 amendment to the Geneva Conventions.

Which country used the Red Lion and Sun emblem from 1924 to 1980?

It switched to the Red Crescent in 1980 but explicitly kept the right to use the old symbol.

What is the name of the fourth, religiously neutral protection emblem adopted by a vote in 2005?

It broke the impasse over Israel's Red Star of David; Magen David Adom was admitted in 2006.

Israel's national society, admitted to the movement in 2006, is called what?

Its name means 'Red Shield of David'; it had refused for decades to give up its emblem.

How many Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1949 in response to the horrors of World War II?

They cover the wounded on land, the wounded and shipwrecked at sea, prisoners of war and civilians; 196 countries have ratified them.

In which year was the First Geneva Convention adopted?

Its original ten articles have since grown to 64.

How many countries have ratified the four 1949 Geneva Conventions?

Aside from the UN Charter, they are among the most widely ratified agreements on Earth.

Which of the four 1949 conventions deals with prisoners of war?

The First covers the wounded in the field, the Second the wounded and shipwrecked at sea, the Fourth civilians.

Which American nurse, known as the 'Angel of the Battlefield', founded the American Red Cross in 1881?

She earned the nickname helping an overwhelmed surgeon after the Battle of Cedar Mountain in 1862.

Under which president did the American Red Cross founder finally win US backing?

Earthquakes, forest fires and hurricanes were her pitch; the first official meeting was in her Washington apartment on 21 May 1881.

How old was the American Red Cross's founder when she was forced to resign as its president in 1904?

Critics said her personal leadership style did not fit a formal charity; she went on to found the National First Aid Society.

In which New York town was the American Red Cross's first local chapter established in 1881?

It met at the English Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Roughly what share of the donated blood in the United States does the American Red Cross supply?

It sells the blood to hospitals on a cost-recovery basis; in 2019 a unit of red cells cost hospitals about $215.

In which year did Congress grant the American Red Cross the charter formalising its relief role?

It is not a government agency, but the charter tasks it with relief in pestilence, famine, fire and flood.

Who was the first medical director of the American Red Cross blood programme in 1941?

Drew's work on blood plasma storage saved countless lives in World War II.

The British Red Cross was formed in 1870 at the outbreak of which war?

It began as the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War at a public meeting in London on 4 August 1870.

In which year was the League of Red Cross Societies founded in Paris?

Henry Davison of the American Red Cross led the effort with President Wilson's support, extending the movement to peacetime disaster relief.

How many National Societies were recognised within the movement as of 2024?

Decolonisation in the 1960s brought a huge jump in the number of recognised societies.

Approximately how many volunteers, members and staff does the movement have worldwide?

That makes it the largest humanitarian network on Earth.

How many Fundamental Principles were proclaimed at the 1965 International Conference in Vienna?

They were written into the movement's statutes in 1986.

During WWI the ICRC ran an agency that handled roughly how many letters and messages for prisoners of war?

Its card index grew to some 7 million records, and it also passed on 1.9 million parcels.

Which French pacifist writer volunteered at the ICRC's POW agency in 1914 and gave it half his Nobel money?

He won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1915.

Which Norwegian explorer invented a passport for stateless refugees?

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his refugee work.

Which 1912 disaster is among the earliest major relief operations credited to the American Red Cross?

Later operations ranged from the 1918 flu pandemic to Hurricane Katrina and the 2023 Maui wildfires.

Who created the American Red Cross War Council on 10 May 1917?

He later used the organisation to send food to opponents of the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war.

Which blood type is usually cited as the 'universal donor' for red-cell transfusions?

For plasma the system flips: AB is the universal plasma donor.

Who coined 'blood bank' when he set up an early hospital blood bank in Chicago in 1937?

He was director of therapeutics at Cook County Hospital.

Which German royal did Clara Barton help set up military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War?

She then ran relief work in Strasbourg and Paris in 1871.

Which 1889 Pennsylvania disaster, killing over 2,200, was an early American Red Cross relief effort?

Five Red Cross workers arrived first and within days had gathered 45 more, including doctors and nurses, as donations poured in from around the world.

Which US company has registered the red cross symbol for its medicinal products?

Outside that exception the emblem is protected by the Geneva Conventions, and its casual use on toys and in video games has drawn objections from the movement.

Which monarch granted the British Red Cross its first royal charter in 1908?

He became its patron while Queen Alexandra served as president; the society had only adopted the 'British Red Cross' name in 1905.

In 1914 the British Red Cross formed the Joint War Committee with which body?

Together they ran the Voluntary Aid Detachments and supplied the first motorised ambulances to the front.

The Red Crescent was first used in place of the cross during which war?

The government feared the cross would alienate its Muslim soldiers; Russia agreed in 1877 to respect the new symbol.

What was the ICRC's original Latin motto?

It means 'Amidst War, Charity', and the ICRC kept it while other Red Cross bodies adopted mottos of their own.

Until 1923, only citizens of which city could serve on the International Committee?

The rule was then widened to all Swiss citizens, and only since 1993 have non-Swiss staff served as delegates abroad.

In 1990 the ICRC became the first private organisation granted what by the UN General Assembly?

The resolution was proposed by 138 member states and introduced by Italy's ambassador in memory of the movement's Solferino origins.

Who became the first woman to head the ICRC when she took office in October 2022?

She succeeded Peter Maurer; the committee's first female member, Renée-Marguerite Cramer, had been co-opted back in 1918.

Dunant's first book, published in 1858, was an account of the regency of which North African city?

It followed an 1853 assignment to Algeria, Tunisia and Sicily for a Geneva colonial company, years before his humanitarian fame.