Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. Wikipedia Born : July 29, 1905, Jönköping, Sweden Died : September 18, 1961, Ndola, Zambia Succeeded by : U Thant Awards : Nobel Peace Prize Quotes For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes. The longest journey is the journey inward. Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for. A UN report into the death of its secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld, in a 1961 plane clash in central Africa has found that there is a “significant amount of evidence” that his flight was brought down by another aircraft. Plane crash that killed UN boss 'may have been caused by aircraft attack' Exclusive: US and UK record