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It came to my notice through a Facebook post that a renowned scientist and former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Adbul Kalam passed away. When I looked upon his Wiki page I noticed this line:

Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Student Day by the United Nations.

The source backing that claim doesn't shed any light on whether UN recognized that day or not. On further research over web, I found various links which claimed this fact. It has to be noted that all the links that I came across were either from Indian people, Indian media, Indian websites, or things dominantly dealing with Indian matters. 'Indian' here refers to the South Asian and second largest populated Country in the world.

Failing to find an authentic source, I inquired about World Student Day. Here are some sources that I found:

None of them mentioned the term United Nations (UN) or the name of Dr. Kalam anywhere in their text.

I lastly looked at the days of International Observance and found the only mention of the word 'Student' in this line:

November 17 International Students Day

The wiki page of International Students Day again has no mention of Dr. Kalam, neither it says that UN has officially observed it.

UNESCO also on its page of International Days has no mention of the word Student.

So, did UN observe Dr. Kalam's 79th or any birthday as World Student Day?


Here is the original question on site's Meta.

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    The [UN News Centre](http://www.un.org/news/) does not have *any* mention of *Abdul Kalam* or *world student day*. But I don't know how good that centre is. Neither do the 'official' [Facebook fan page](https://www.facebook.com/OfficialKalam) or [website](http://officialkalam.com/) mention anything (nothing 'official' about them BTW). –  Jul 29 '15 at 07:30
  • @JanDoggen Thanks for the UN News Centre link, and the Facebook page and that website is actually managed by his fans (check "About us"). Ah, I see now what you meant as *nothing 'official' about them BTW*. –  Jul 29 '15 at 21:16

1 Answers1

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Per the international days currently observed by the United Nations listed here, World Student Day is not yet observed by UN as an International Day. The resolution establishing each international day is also listed in parenthesis in the International Day list.

New international days are established regularly by The United Nations an international organization currently made up of 193 Member States and founded in 1945.

pericles316
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    +1, The authentic source (and the answer) I should've encountered in my research. Thanks for it. It also seems as per my findings that UN or Dr. Kalam has nothing to with *World Student Day*, which means a hoax has been propagating in such densely populated country since last five years, and not even the elite media there cared to check the facts –  Jul 29 '15 at 07:24