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10 November: what is celebrated today
On 10 November the calendar opens like a laboratory of humanity: science, health, economics and compassion intertwine to remind us that knowledge has no meaning without empathy. On this day, science seeks peace, figures become ethical language, illness demands visibility and children without families recall the need for a fairer world. It is a day to consider the shared responsibility of making progress a common good.
World Science Day for Peace and Development
Proclaimed by UNESCO and the UN, World Science Day for Peace and Development invites us every 10 November to reflect on the power of knowledge in the service of good. This observance was born after the World Conference on Science in Budapest (1999), where a commitment was sealed: to use science not as an instrument of domination, but as a bridge towards cooperation.
The 2024 theme, “Why Science Matters: Engaging Minds and Empowering Futures”, sums up the spirit of this date. Science belongs not only to laboratories; it also lives in classrooms, homes and children’s curiosity. It is the language that can unite cultures and generations in the pursuit of a sustainable future.
International Accounting Day
On the same day, but in another field of knowledge, International Accounting Day is celebrated. It is no coincidence that it shares a date with science: both disciplines seek balance and truth. This observance, promoted in 1972 by Instituto de Contadores de California, commemorates the publication in 1494 of the treatise Summa de Arithmetica by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli, considered the father of modern accounting.
Accounting, often perceived as a cold and technical practice, is actually an art of transparency. In its numbers beats the trust that sustains businesses, communities and countries. Every well-prepared balance sheet is a form of justice: ordering value, giving meaning to resources and building trust.
International Day against Neuroendocrine Cancer (NET)
10 November is also coloured by medical hope with International Day against Neuroendocrine Cancer (NET), dedicated to raising awareness of a rare and difficult-to-diagnose disease. Patients with these tumours — often called “zebras” because of their rarity — face diffuse symptoms that can be confused with other ailments.
This day seeks to raise awareness among both the public and healthcare staff of the importance of early diagnosis. The image of the zebra has become a universal symbol of this struggle: every stripe is unique, like every patient. Remembering this day is to claim attention, research and empathy as the true treatments that save lives.
World Orphans Day
World Orphans Day, instituted by The Stars Foundation and celebrated on the second Monday in November, sheds light on a silent reality: millions of children around the world live without parents or protection. In many countries, poverty, wars and diseases continue to leave entire generations of orphans in their wake.
This date is not merely a tribute, but a call to action. Associations, schools and communities come together to raise funds, organise solidarity activities and remember that every child deserves a home, an education and a voice. The façades lit in purple are, for one day, the reflection of a promise: that no one should grow up without affection or hope.
International Week of Science and Peace
And as a natural extension of the spirit of this day, from 9 to 15 November International Week of Science and Peace is celebrated, a UN initiative born in 1986 during the International Year of Peace. Its purpose is to connect research with ethics, the laboratory with dialogue.
Every conference, every exchange between scientists and citizens, seeks the same goal: to demonstrate that progress only makes sense when it translates into harmony. Science is not neutral; it is a force that can build or destroy. This week, the world chooses to build.