On this day in 1962 – June 14th – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom signed the Convention creating the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO).
The Convention was ratified on 20 March 1964, this date now celebrated as the birth of ESRO. The long process of establishing European space cooperation ultimately led, in 1975, to the birth of the European Space Agency.