When Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith and its authorized interpreter since Abdu'l-Baha's death in 1921, died suddenly in 1957 without having named a successor as Guardian, the Baha'i community faced a significant institutional question, since Baha'u'llah's own writings had provided for the eventual election of a supreme governing body, the Universal House of Justice, but had not specified how the transition should occur if the Guardianship itself came to an end unexpectedly.
In the interim period between 1957 and 1963, the Baha'i community was administered by a group of senior believers Shoghi Effendi had earlier appointed, known as the Hands of the Cause of God, who worked to prepare the community's institutional structures, including the network of National Spiritual Assemblies that had been established in Baha'i communities around the world, for the election Baha'u'llah's writings had called for.
That election finally took place in April 1963, when delegates representing the National Spiritual Assemblies of Baha'i communities across the world gathered to elect the first nine members of the Universal House of Justice, an event that coincided with the centenary of Baha'u'llah's own declaration of his mission at Ridvan in 1863.