Biography | Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (29 July 1905, Jönköping, Sweden 18 September 1961, Ndola, Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland) was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. The second Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is one of just three people to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize. Hammarskjöld is the only U.N. Secretary-General to die in office; his death occurred en route to cease-fire negotiations. American President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld 'the greatest statesman of our century'. |