Birthplace of the United Nations, War Memorial Complex

The Charter was signed in the Veterans Building on 26 June 1945 by delegates of fifty nations. Poland, which sent no delegation because its new government was announced too late, signed that October and counts as the fifty-first founding member. The Opera House next door carries a second State Department bronze, for a second treaty: there, on 8 September 1951, forty-nine nations signed the peace with Japan. The Soviet delegation attended and would not sign, and neither Chinese government had been invited.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 11 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 11 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Earthquake Trail — 27 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 28 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King — 0.4 mi
• Site of Woodward's Gardens — 0.7 mi
• Old United States Mint — 0.8 mi
• Union Square — 0.9 mi