1971
Prof. Michaelson arranges a seminar on blindness prevention in Jerusalem. The Executive Committee of the Association proposes expanding its General Assembly at the forthcoming International Congress of Ophthalmology to a two-day Conference on Blindness and Visual Impairment.

The American Foundation for Overseas Blind (AFOB) provides assistance to 103 countries, and teachers from 15 nations attend orientation and mobility courses for educators. With a new emphasis on blindness prevention, AFOB begins a worldwide campaign to prevent nutritional blindness.

1968
Although reporting of results is confused by different definitions of blindness and its causes, it is increasingly clear that besides trachoma there are several important blinding diseases commonly found in developing countries.

1964
First meeting of Joint Committee in Geneva.

Adoption of an international system for classifying causes of blindness. This system is recommended for use worldwide by the Association and is subsequently published in the Journal of Social Ophthalmology and is widely distributed.

1963
Operation Eyesight Universal is founded in Canada.

1962
As Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind and chairman of the Committee for the Prevention of Blindness of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB), Sir John Wilson proposes a fusion between the Committee and the Association for the Prevention of Blindness. Although these organizations remain independent, a Joint Committee is formed.

1961
The International Eye Foundation is founded in the United States by John Harry King, Jr., M.D., whose primary purpose is teaching with a mandate of the prevention and cure of blindness worldwide.
Christoffel-Blindenmission's services are extended to include ophthalmological work, particularly curing and preventing blindness.

1960
The Association begins scheduling its General Assemblies to coincide with meetings of the newly formed European Congress of Ophthalmology. Sir Stuart Duke-Elder and Sir John Wilson propose cooperation between ophthalmologists and blind welfare workers.
The Association agrees to work with WHO on a World Health Day for the prevention of blindness, scheduled for April 7, 1962.

1952
WHO convenes an Expert Committee on Trachoma. Subsequent meetings are held in 1955 and 1961, and a Scientific Group meets in 
1965.

From 1952 through 1956 two teams, one ophthalmic and one entomological, appointed by the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, survey the extent and consequences of onchocerciasis in West Africa and propose a control program.

1950
British Empire Society for the Blind (subsequently called the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind) is founded in the United Kingdom and begins blindness surveys in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and in East and Central Africa. These surveys, which demonstrate a much greater prevalence than had been estimated, lead to a growing recognition of the magnitude of the problem and the need for making prevention a priority.

1948
World Health Organization (WHO) is founded, but at first there are no specific activities in the field of blindness prevention. Trachoma is the first blinding disease to which WHO directs its attention; WHO initiates the gradual development of surveillance and control methodologies and research and field studies from the early 1950s. Mass treatment programs are subsequently successful in providing topical treatment with tetracycline, health education, and surgical correction of trichiasis. Some of these field research studies are developed into national trachoma control programs in many developing countries in the 1950s and are the antecedents of today's comprehensive national programs for the prevention of blindness.

1947
British Government's Colonial Office White Paper addresses the general impression that there are an estimated 5 million blind people in the world, of whom 2 million live in India.

1930
President Herbert Hoover invites 50 countries to participate in the World Conference on Work for the Blind, which is held in 1931 in Washington, D.C.

1929
Twenty-eight nations are represented at an assembly at The Hague where ophthalmologists from Europe and the United States and the League des Societies de la Croix Rouge found the International Association for the Prevention of Blindness. Prof. de Lapersonne (France) and Dr.Park Lewis (USA) are elected President and Vice President. During its early years, the Association's General Assembly is held in conjunction with the International Congress of Ophthalmology (ICO), generally with a half day devoted to the prevention of blindness. The Association introduces the Journal of Social Ophthalmology, in French and English; 38 editions of this Journal are published until it is discontinued in 1967.

The International Organization Against Trachoma is founded in France.

1915
The Permanent Blind Relief War Fund for Soldiers and Sailors of the Allies, Inc. is founded in Paris to aid blind Belgian soldiers and British war blind and to educate blinded French veterans. It evolves into the American Braille Press for War and Civilian Blind, Inc. (which produced 19 million pages of braille by 1927); the American Foundation for Overseas Blind, Inc.; and finally in 1977 Helen Keller International.

1908
Christoffel-Blindenmission (CBM) is founded in Germany to provide education and rehabilitation of blind and other disabled people.
The National Society to Prevent Blindness (NSPB) is founded in the United States.

1882 
London Society for the Prevention of Blindness is established and begins focusing attention on the causes and prevention of blindness at an International Congress of Hygiene in Geneva. Interest in preventing blindness continues sporadically over the next several decades.