On This Day: The world celebrates the first official International Women's Day

March 8, 1975: The United Nations celebrated March 8 as International Women's Day and two years later it formally designated the day a celebration of women's rights globally.

But it is worth noting that Women's Day had been observed long before this. In fact, the first national day to promote and campaign for women's rights was marked on 1909 and that took place in the United States.

The movement quickly spread around the world in a time where women were denied the right to vote and were seen as inferior to men. The first - albeit unofficial - international women's day was in 1911, when more than a million people across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland were estimated to have taken part.

Celebrating the day is an acknowledgement of the advancement of women towards equality but also recognises what still needs to be achieved.

It is in this hopeful vein that women spoke in this Pathé clip from 1944 as they celebrated International Women's Day.

In it, Lady Beveridge lays out her hope for life after the war in front of the Central London crowd.

She tells the audience: "Freedom from idleness, freedom from want, freedom from squalor, freedom from ignorance, freedom from disease and the sixth - freedom from war."