Photo of the day From the Stripes archives

May 18, 2005

Red Grandy ©Stars and Stripes

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, April 8, 1953: Jean Monnet, considered by many to be "the Father of the European Community," poses for a photo in his office at the headquarters of the European Coal and Steel Community. Ten years earlier, Monnet said the European nations "are not strong enough individually to be able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make them into a common economic unit.” He was the guiding force behind the postwar ECSC, which put the steel and coal industries of his native France, West Germany and other European nations under joint control and paved the way for the Common Market and the European Union.