On October 29, 1863, delegates meeting in Geneva, Switzerland,

adopted 10 resolutions aimed at helping wounded soldiers, thereby

launching what would become the International Red Cross and Red
Crescent Movement. In addition to establishing the emblem for their
nascent humanitarian projecta red cross on a white background
they advocated neutrality for medical personnel on the battlefield and
laid the groundwork for the creation of affiliated national societies.
The first of these formed a few weeks later in Wrttemberg (now part
of Germany), and nearly every country in the world has since
followed suit. One hundred fifty years after the Red Cross start, here
are seven things you may not know about the crisis-response
organization.

1. A gruesome battle sparked the idea for the Red Cross.

In 1859 Swiss entrepreneur Jean Henri Dunant went in search of French
Emperor Napoleon III, whom he hoped would help with a business venture
in French-controlled Algeria. Dunant never did gain a meeting with the
emperor. But while in present-day Italy he witnessed the Battle of
Solferino, in which some 40,000 troops were killed or wounded in a single
day. Since neither army had much of a medical corps, Dunant organized a
group of volunteers to bring food and water to the wounded, to treat their
injuries and to write letters to their families. Then, in 1862, he published a
book titled A Memory of Solferino, in which he described viewing
amputations without anesthetic and groaning, fly-covered men who had
been left for dead. Some, who had gaping wounds already beginning to
show infectionbegged to be put out of their misery, and writhed with
faces distorted in the grip of the death struggle, Dunant wrote. Others
were disfiguredtheir limbs stiffened, their bodies blotched with ghastly
spots, their hands clawing at the ground, their eyes staring wildly. At the
end of his book, Dunant suggested permanent societies of volunteers who
in time of war would give help to the wounded without regard for their
nationality. This vision for the Red Cross, championed by Gustave
Moynier of the Geneva Public Welfare Society, became a reality the
following year.
2. Not everyone believed the Red Cross was a good idea.
In his book, Dunant praised British nurse Florence Nightingale for her
passionate devotion to suffering humanity and for giving up the
pleasures of opulence in order to devote herself to doing good. But
Nightingale, who had made a name for herself in the Crimean War, did not
originally think highly of the Red Cross. Such a society, she told Dunant,
would take upon itself duties which ought to be performed by the
government of each country and so would relieve them of responsibilities
which really belong to themand render war more easy. Nightingale was
harsher in a private letter to a colleague, calling the Red Cross views
most absurdjust such as would originate in a little state like Geneva,
which never can see war. She later softened her stance and even joined
the British Red Cross ladies committee. Nonetheless, critics of the
organization remained, such as a journalist who declared during World
War I that to heal mens wounds and send them back to the front as soon
as possible is to prolong war indefinitely. A generation later, in arguably its
most controversial decision, the International Red Cross declined to
publicly condemn the Holocaust despite knowing of the atrocities.

3. Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

A one-time clerk in the U.S. Patent Office, Clara Barton spent the
American Civil War nursing wounded troops and distributing supplies at
the front. She also helped locate thousands of missing men, earning the
nickname Angel of the Battlefield. While visiting Europe a few years after
the wars conclusion, Barton learned about the Red Cross movement and
the related Geneva Convention, which regulated the treatment of wounded
soldiers and was later expanded to include prisoners of war and civilians.
Upon returning home, she began lobbying the U.S. government to ratify
the convention, which it did in 1882. Meanwhile, in May 1881, Barton
founded the American Red Cross. She would lead the organization for
over two decades, finally resigning at the age of 83.

4. The American Red Cross expanded exponentially during World

War I.
Under Barton, the American Red Cross devoted itself largely to disaster
relief, responding to floods, forest fires, tornadoes, a yellow fever epidemic
and a hurricane that killed at least 6,000 people in Galveston, Texas. At
the time of her resignation, the organization had only a few thousand
members. It soon grew rapidly, however, in part by cultivating a close
relationship with the U.S. government and by depicting membership as a
patriotic duty. By the end of World War I, over 20 million adults and 11
million children had joined. It was considered so essential to the war effort,
in fact, that a Wisconsin public official was convicted under the Espionage
Act for calling it, among other things, nothing but a bunch of grafters.
Wartime services and disaster relief remain part of the present-day
mission of the American Red Cross, along with health and safety training,
support for military families and blood collection.

5. A red cross is not the only approved symbol of the organization.

Just before the Ottoman Empire went to war with Russia in 1877, it
approved a national Red Cross society with one caveat. Instead of a cross,
which they associated with Christianity and medieval crusaders, Ottoman
medical personnel identified themselves and their equipment with a
crescent. Russia agreed to recognize that emblem during the conflict;
however, its legal status remained in limbo until 1929, when it was
incorporated into the Geneva Conventions. Today, the national societies of
over 30 Islamic nations use the red crescent. Israels national first-aid
society, Magen David Adom, likewise tried for decades to get approval for
a red Star of David on a white background. Finally, in 2005, a compromise
was reached in which the Geneva Conventions recognized the red crystal
(essentially a diamond). Magen David Adom still uses the Star of David
domestically but has adopted the red crystal, sometimes with the Star of
David inside it, for international operations. A fourth symbol, the red lion
and sun, was utilized in Iran prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

6. The Red Cross has won more Nobel Peace Prizes than anyone.
Dunant played little role with the Red Cross after a court held him primarily
responsible for the 1867 collapse of the bank Crdit Genevois, where he
served as a director. Nonetheless, he secured the first Nobel Peace Prize
in 1901 along with leading French pacifist Frdric Passy. The
International Committee of the Red Cross, the Switzerland-based
custodian of the Geneva Conventions, won its own Nobel Peace Prizes in
1917 and 1944, in the midst of World War I and World II, respectively. It
then shared a third Nobel Peace Prize in 1963 with the League of Red
Cross Societies (now the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies), which today overseas national associations in 187
countries.

7. Working for the Red Cross can be dangerous.

Under international law, it is illegal to deliberately target humanitarian
workers. Yet that has not stopped the Red Cross from often finding itself in
the line of fire. In 1996, for example, masked men gunned down six Red
Cross aides as they slept in a Chechen hospital compound. Similar attacks
in the 1990s and early 2000s occurred in Burundi, Somalia, Congo and
Bosnia, whereas this decade over 20 Red Crescent volunteers have
perished in the Syrian civil war. Just this month, seven more of the
organizations workers were kidnapped in northwestern Syria after gunmen
reportedly opened fire on their convoy.