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History Daily

1228: The Formation of the Red Cross

History Daily

History Daily

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

October 29, 1863. Led by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.1

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0:06.0

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0:10.6

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0:31.6

Thank you. It's June 24, 1859, on a battlefield on Sulphorino, northern Italy. Henri Dunon kneels in the mud beside a wounded soldier, a 31-year-old Swiss businessman, Henri tries his best to tend to the

0:40.2

blood-soaked man. Popping his head up, Henri raises a canteen of water to the soldier's lips.

0:46.7

But as the man sipped, he coughs violently and spits out blood.

0:51.6

Henri knows he doesn't have long to live. So he lowers the canteen to the ground and gripping the man's hand, waits for the inevitable.

1:00.0

Hundreds more wounded soldiers lie in the mud all around.

1:04.0

Only a few hours ago, a joint French and Sardinian army won an important victory over an Austrian enemy here. But that triumph has come at a cost of thousands, either killed or horrifically wounded.

1:15.6

And Henri's appearance on the battlefield was completely unplanned.

1:19.6

He'd been traveling through Italy on a business man when he stumbled on the carnage.

1:23.6

Henri couldn't ignore what he saw, so he quickly said about helping. But for far too many

1:29.5

of the young men lying on this battlefield, it was already too late. The soldier in the mud beside

1:36.3

Henri shakes for a moment, his breath ragged, and then the light in his eyes goes out. Henri fights

1:42.5

the feeling of helplessness and surges through him. This young man is not the first soldier to die in his eyes goes out. Henri fights the feeling of helplessness and surges through him.

1:45.0

This young man is not the first soldier to die in his arms today, and he won't be the last.

1:53.0

The horrors that Henri Dunor witnesses on the battlefield will change his life, and eventually the world too.

1:59.0

Building on years of social activism, Henri will help

2:02.9

establish an organization unlike any before, a neutral body dedicated to helping people suffering

2:08.5

in conflict, whatever side they're on. It will be named the Red Cross, and it will be founded

2:13.3

on October 29, 1863.

...

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