Following the establishment of the UN Organization, he was unanimously elected as Secretary General by the Security Council on 1 February 1946. During this period, he played an important role in mediation attempts between Russia and the West.
Trygve Halvdan Lie was born in Oslo on July 16, 1896. He married Hjordis Joergensen on November 8, 1921. They had three children: Sissel, Guri, and Mette.
In 1911 he joined the Norwegian Labor Party Youth Organisation.
He graduated from Oslo University Faculty of Law in 1919.
Trygve Halvdan Lie (16 July 1896 – 30 December 1968) was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first Secretary-General of the United Nations.
From 1922 to 1935 he worked as legal advisor to the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions. In the Labor Party Government led by Johan Nygaardsvold, he served as Minister of Justice between 1935 and 1939, and as Minister of Trade and Industry between July and September 1939.
He went to England after the German invasion of Norway in April 1940 during the Second World War. From 1941 to 1946 he served as Foreign Minister of the Norwegian government in exile. Following the war, he served as leader of the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1946.
He was a candidate for the presidency of the first General Assembly meeting of the United Nations, held in San Francisco in April 1945, but the Belgian lawyer Paul-Henri Spaak, against whom he competed in the election, gained the right to chair the general assembly.
Following the establishment of the UN Organization, he was unanimously elected as Secretary General by the Security Council on 1 February 1946. During this period, he played an important role in mediation attempts between Russia and the West.
He supported the independence of Israel and Indonesia. It had to deal with the Palestine war and the conflicts between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue.
He was general secretary during the Korean War. He resigned from his post in 1952 because he had difficulty in fulfilling his peace mission due to great reaction from the Soviet Union and being questioned in the USA. He was replaced by Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld, who is also a lawyer.
He wrote many books, including "The Case for Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations", which describes his years at the UN. He acted as a mediator to resolve the border dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia.
King Olav appointed Mr. Lie as a Mediator in 1959. He was awarded many honorary doctorates by universities in the USA and Europe. He received many medals. He was 72 years old when he died of a heart attack in Geilo, Norway, on December 30, 1968.
There is a bronze statue of Trygve Lie in Trygve Lie Square in Oslo, erected in 1994. Trygve Halvdan Lie, who served as the first Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1946 to 1952, died on December 30, 1968.