20 April - Day of Pugwash Movement for Peace and Disarmament

The Pugwash movement was founded on 20 April 1955. Eleven world known scientists signed the manifesto, which called for humanity to abandon the use of nuclear technologies for military purposes. Signatories to the manifesto included Albert Einstein, Frederic Joliot-Curie, Bertrand Russell, Max Born, Percy W. Bridgman, Leopold Infeld, Linus Pauling, Hermann J. Muller, Cecil F. Powel, Joseph Rotblat and Hideki Yukawa.

“War with the use of hydrogen bombs can destroy the humanity… We live in the world of continuous progress, happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Could it be true that we will choose death just because we cannot forget about our disputes?” scientists warned the world community against a new war, which will inevitably be nuclear.

For references: the first Pugwash Conference was held on 07-11 July 1957 under active support of Cyrus Eaton, Canadian public figure, in his homeland in Pugwash (Nova Scotia, Canada). Scientists of many countries attended the conference. Since then, the Pugwash conferences are held once or twice a year.