Universal Children's Day 2014: 6 Fun Facts; 10 Quotes and Wishes to Take Inspiration From

The United Nations Universal Children's Day 2014 falls on 20 November and it is a specially designated event to foster understanding between children and to promote international togetherness and awareness among children.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, promotes and coordinates this special day for international children, which also works towards improving children's welfare and lives all over the globe.

The UN General Assembly on 14 December 1954 recommended that all countries should introduce an annual event for children to encourage fraternity and understanding between children world-wide and it was recommended that individual member nations choose an appropriate date.

The date, 20 November, was chosen to coincide with the UN General Assembly adoption of the 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child' in 1959 and the adoption of the 'Convention on the Rights of the Child' on 20 November 1989.

"We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind," the UN said in statement issued ahead of the day.

In observance of the Universal or International Children's Day 2014, here are 6 fun facts and 10 best and cutest quotes or wishes on children to be shared.

Fun Facts on Children

(Note: Courtesy to the '10 Fun Facts' website, the following points have been generally agreed upon by majority of people world-wide although some of the things cannot be scientifically verified)

1. The average age children begin to use a microwave is seven.
2. A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant. (No disagreements here!)
3. On an average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day (An understatement?)
4. For children, watching television alone can act as a natural painkiller (Don't try!)
5. The kneecaps of children are made of cartilage until the age of 3 years when it ultimately starts to turn into bones. (Scientifically verified!)
6. Those who are of the age of six and under are at the greatest risk of crushing or burning injuries of the hand. (depends!)

Inspirational Quotes About Children

1. "Grown-ups have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and groups. They build barriers... of religion, caste, colour, party, nation, province, language, customs and of rich and poor. Fortunately, children do not know much about these barriers, which separate. They play and work with each other and it is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers from their elders." – Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PM of Independent India
2. Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~Rabindranath Tagore, famous Indian writer
3. Children make you want to start life over. ~Muhammad Ali, American former professional boxer
4. Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982
5. "Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself." – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics.
6. "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." – Albert Einstein
7. "You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones, American humourist 
8. We've had bad luck with our kids — they've all grown up. ~Christopher Morley, American writer, journalist
9. A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. ~Author Unknown
10. Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~William Stafford, American poet

And the best one:

"I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring."

~Unknown author