This Day in History: League of Nations debuts

On this day, in 1920, the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, takes effect and the League of Nations is instituted.
Following the outbreak of World War I – “the war to end all wars” set off by a political assassination in Sarajevo – that cost thousands of lives of young military, ever more influential people in the political arena urged the setting up of a permanent international body that could end the war and situations leading to war and maintain peace in post-war world.
US President Woodrow Wilson spearheaded the concept in 1918, when in his proposal to end WWI, he included a sketch of what would become the League of Nations.
In November 1918, the Central Powers agreed to an armistice and two months later, the Allies met with conquered Germany and Austria-Hungary at Versailles to hammer out formal peace terms. President Wilson urged a just and lasting peace, but England and France disagreed, forcing harsh war reparations on their former enemies. The League of Nations was approved, however, and in the summer of 1919 Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations to the US Senate for ratification.
Wilson suffered a severe stroke in the fall of that year, which prevented him from reaching a compromise with those in Congress who thought the treaties reduced US authority. The US Senate declined to ratify both. The League of Nations, headquartered in Geneva, proceeded without the United States, holding its first meeting in Geneva on November 15, 1920.
Often disregarded by the major powers, the League’s authority was seriously challenged until the early 1930s when a series of events proved it ineffectual. Japan quit the organization after being condemned for its invasion of China, and the League was likewise powerless to prevent the rearmament of Germany and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia or the run-up to WWII.
The establishment of the United Nations in 1946 marked the official dissolution of the League of Nations.