Throw back Photos|ICAO- International Civil Aviation Organisation celebrates 70 years this week.

Talk about a throwback Thursday! Seventy years ago this week, Montreal was selected as the permanent headquarters of the Organization, by 27 votes; the other candidates cities obtained respectively: Paris 9 votes, Geneva 4 votes, a city not named in China 1 vote. The choice of Montreal, proposed by Chile, was supported by Peru, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

Why was Montreal selected? While insisting on the excellent hospitality offered since of the beginnings of the Provisional ICAO by the federal, provincial and municipal authorities, the delegates described Montreal like a roundabout of the international means of communication and a strategic centre with a formidable economic, scientific, technical and aeronautical expansion being felt for a few years. One insisted on the vast spaces of the Canadian territory, offering unlimited possibilities for the scientific and practical experiments in the field of aviation. Moreover, the Provisional ICAO was to be established as close as possible to the central head office of the United Nations.

The vote took place at the First Session of the Provisional ICAO Assembly. This Assembly was originally scheduled from 21 May until Sunday 8 June 1946, but ended in fact on 7 June. Although the Assembly was held at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, some of the meetings were held at the Dominion Square Building (10th floor). Mr. Louis de Brouckère, Chairman of the Belgian Delegation, was elected President of the Provisional ICAO First Interim Assembly. The Assembly comprised representatives of forty-four Member States, observers from ten non-member States, and eight international organizations. The session closed with two plenary meetings, one on 6 June, devoted to the selection of the site of the permanent organization and the filling of the existing vacancy on the Interim Council (left by the USSR), and the other on 7 June, at which the Assembly considered the final reports of the Commissions.

In parallel with the General Assembly of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) which completed its work on 7 June 1946, the first regional air conference was held from the 6 to 8 June in the large room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal, under the auspices of the Montreal Board of Trade.

The conference completed its work by declaring that Canada had to play a great role in the future development of world aviation, so much because of its strategic position to the roundabout of the international air lines than because of the vast spaces that the travelers must traverse to go from one ocean to the other. Canada was at that time in a critical as well as strategic position of the geographical map where every direct route between North America, on the one hand, and Europe or Asia, on the other, crossed the country. Canada was recognized as a power of first importance in the commercial operations and the development of aeronautics. — at Ritz-Carlton, Montréal

A Journal of the Assembly was issued daily, giving the order of the day, summaries of meetings of the previous day and important announcements.

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