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Founding of the Permanent Secretariat

When: 14 April 1890
Where: Washington, D.C.
Part of: Commercial Bureau of the American Republics founded

The conference established a permanent secretariat, originally named the International Bureau of American Republics, on 14 April 1890.

This achievement was considered more significant than the commercial or arbitration agreements. The secretariat was created to facilitate regular inter-American meetings. Its founding date is celebrated as the Day of the Americas, marking the origin of the Pan American Union and the OAS.

Sources

First International Conference of American States Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-21
Organization of American States Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.