1949 - official proposal for the creation of a European laboratory proposed by French physicist Louis de Broglie at the European Cultural Conference in Lausanne; 1951 - intergovernmental meeting of UNESCO in Paris in December the establishment of a European Council for Nuclear Research was adopted; 1952 - agreement signed establishing the provisional Council (CERN) 1952/1953 - site for Laboratory agreed to be Geneva; There were 12 founding Member States: Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. 1954 - the European Organization for Nuclear Research officially came into being. CERN was dissolved but the acronym is still used; 1957: - first accelerator begins operation; European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN CH-1211, Genève 23, Switzerland; Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, F-01631, CERN Cedex France