On 1 December 1988, for the first time in history, a public day of awareness was celebrated. Called World Aids Day, it served as an attempt by the World Health Organization and the United Nations to bring awareness to a disease that had already killed 45,000 Americans by that point and tens of thousands more worldwide.
It was the first time that the Names Project’s Aids memorial quilt, which memorably included one coffin-sized panel for each person who had died of Aids, was displayed at the same time on multiple continents. Elected officials such as Chicago’s mayor, Eugene Sawyer, used the day as an opportunity to announce groundbreaking HIV/Aids public awareness and education campaigns.
