“Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”

In recent years, progress in reducing malaria has ground to a standstill. Not only does malaria continue to directly endanger health and cost lives, but it also perpetuates a vicious cycle of inequity. People living in the most vulnerable situations including pregnant women, infants, children under 5 years of age, refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, and Indigenous Peoples continue to be disproportionately impacted.

The WHO African Region shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease – accounting, in 2022, for 94% and 95% of malaria case and deaths. Rural populations in the African region living in situations of poverty and with less access to education are the most impacted. In view of the current trajectory, critical 2025 milestones of the WHO global malaria strategy for reductions in malaria cases and deaths will be missed.

Why are pregnant women, young children and other groups in vulnerable situations not accessing the malaria services they need? On World Malaria Day 2024, WHO joins the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and other partners in highlighting barriers to health equity, gender equality and human rights in malaria responses worldwide – as well as concrete measures to overcome them.

608 000
malaria deaths
in 2022

249 million
new cases of malaria
in 2022

94%
of all malaria cases
are in WHO African Region

1296 – The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar.

1509 – Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.

1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

1565 – The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established in Cebu City.

1805 – A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

1813 – Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.

1861 – West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.

1861 – U.S. President Lincoln issued an order to General Winfield Scott that authorized him to suspend the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington at or near any military line.

1863 – The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.

1865 – In the U.S. the Sultana exploded while carrying 2,300 Union POWs. Between 1,400 – 2,000 were killed.

1880 – Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.

1897 – Grant’s Tomb was dedicated.

1899 – The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, IL.

1903 – Jamaica Race Track opened in Long Island, NY.

1909 – The sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.

1938 – Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.

1938 – A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.

1945 – The Second Republic was founded in Austria.

1946 – The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.

1947 – “Babe Ruth Day” was celebrated at Yankee Stadium.

1950 – South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.

1953 – The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.

1953 – Five people were killed and 60 injured when Mt. Aso erupted on the island of Kyushu.

1960 – The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.

1961 – The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.

1965 – “Pampers” were patented by R.C. Duncan.

1967 – In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.

1975 – Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.

1978 – Pro-Soviet Marxists seized control of Afghanistan.

1982 – The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.

1982 – China proposed a new constitution that would radically alter the structure of the national government.

1983 – Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record when he struck out his 3,509th batter of his career.

1984 – In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.

1986 – Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.

1989 – Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

1987 – The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its ally Montenegro.

1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

2005 – The A380, the world’s largest jetliner, completed its maiden flight. The passenger capability was 840.

2005 – Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.

2006 – In New York, NY, construction began on the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center on the site of former World Trade Center.

April 27, 1937 The Social Security Board authorized, as an aid to State administration of unemployment compensation laws, the assignment of Social Security account numbers to employees 65 years of age and over who were covered by the State unemployment compensation laws but were not covered under Title II.

Colorado Governor John Love signed the first law legalizing abortion in the U.S. The law was limited to therapeutic abortions when agreed to, unanimously, by a panel of three physicians.

1590 – The Sultan of Morocco launched his successful attack to capture Timbuktu.

1644 – The Ming Chongzhen emperor committed suicide by hanging himself.

1684 – A patent was granted for the thimble.

1707 – At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated the Anglo-Portugese.

1792 – The guillotine was first used to execute highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier.

1831 – The New York and Harlem Railway was incorporated in New York City.

1846 – The Mexican-American War ignited as a result of disputes over claims to Texas boundaries. The outcome of the war fixed Texas‘ southern boundary at the Rio Grande River.

1859 – Work began on the Suez Canal in Egypt.

1860 – The first Japanese diplomats to visit a foreign power reached Washington, DC. They remained in the U.S. capital for several weeks while discussing expansion of trade with the United States.

1862 – Union Admiral Farragut occupied New Orleans, LA.

1864 – After facing defeat in the Red River Campaign, Union General Nathaniel Bank returned to Alexandria, LA.

1867 – Tokyo was opened for foreign trade.

1882 – French commander Henri Riviere seized the citadel of Hanoi in Indochina.

1898 – The U.S. declared war on Spain. Spain had declared war on the U.S. the day before.

1901 – New York became the first state to require license plates for cars. The fee was $1.

1915 – During World War I, Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli in Turkey in hopes of attacking the Central Powers from below. The attack was unsuccessful.

1925 – General Paul von Hindenburg took office as president of Germany.

1926 – In Iran, Reza Kahn was crowned Shah and choose the name “Pehlevi.”

1928 – A seeing eye dog was used for the first time.

1938 – “Your Family and Mine,” a radio serial, was first broadcast.

1940 – W2XBS (now WCBS-TV) in New York City presented the first circus on TV.

1945 – U.S. and Soviet forces met at Torgau, Germany on Elbe River.

1945 – Delegates from about 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.

1952 – After a three-day fight against Chinese Communist Forces, the Gloucestershire Regiment was annihilated on “Gloucester Hill,” in Korea.

1953 – U.S. Senator Wayne Morse ended the longest speech in U.S. Senate history. The speech on the Offshore Oil Bill lasted 22 hours and 26 minutes.

1953 – Dr. James D. Watson and Dr. Francis H.C. Crick suggested the double helix structure of DNA.

1954 – The prototype manufacture of the first solar battery was announced by the Bell Laboratories in New York City.

1957 – Operations began at the first experimental sodium nuclear reactor.

1959 – St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping. The water way connects the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

1961 – Robert Noyce was granted a patent for the integrated circuit.

1962 – The U.S. spacecraft, Ranger, crashed on the Moon.

1967 – Colorado Governor John Love signed the first law legalizing abortion in the U.S. The law was limited to therapeutic abortions when agreed to, unanimously, by a panel of three physicians.

1971 – The country of Bangladesh was established.

1974 – Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar was overthrown in a military coup.

1976 – Portugal ratified a constitution. It was first revised on October 30, 1982.

1980 – In Iran, a commando mission to rescue hostages was aborted after mechanical problems disabled three of the eight helicopters involved. During the evacuation, a helicopter and a transport plan collided and exploded. Eight U.S. servicemen were killed. The mission was aimed at freeing American hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. The event took place April 24th Washington, DC, time.

1982 – In accordance with Camp David agreements, Israel completed its Sinai withdrawal.

1983 – Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov invited Samantha Smith to visit his country after receiving a letter in which the U.S. schoolgirl expressed fears about nuclear war.

1983 – The Pioneer 10 spacecraft crossed Pluto’s orbit, speeding on its endless voyage through the Milky Way.

1984 – In France, over one million people demonstrated to show they favored the decentralization of education.

1984 – David Anthony Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead of a drug overdose in a hotel room.

1985 – “Big River (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)” opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in New York City.

1987 – In Washington, DC, 100,000 people protested the U.S. policy in Central America.

1987 – Peter O’Toole opened in “Pygmalion” on Broadway.

1988 – In Israel, John “Ivan the Terrible” Demjanuk was sentenced to death as a Nazi war criminal.

1990 – Sandinista rule ended in Nicaragua.

1990 – The U.S. Hubble Space Telescope was placed into Earth’s orbit. It was released by the space shuttle Discovery.

1992 – Islamic forces in Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government.

1996 – The main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted to revoke clauses in its charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy Israel.

2003 – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader and ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to four years in prison for her conviction on fraud and theft charges. She was convicted of 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft of money from a women’s political league.

2007 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 13,000 for the first time.