The World Data Centre (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The WDCs were funded and maintained by their host countries on behalf of the international science community. Originally established in the United States (WDC A), Soviet Union (WDC B), Europe and Japan (WDC C), the WDC system expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines. The WDC system included up to 52 Centres in 15 countries, with some data centres replicating another. All data held in WDCs were available for the cost of copying and sending the requested information. In 1968 the ICSU Panel on World Data Centers (Geophysical, Solar, and Environmental) was established to coordinate activities and to establish operating criteria for the WDCs. At the end of 2008, following the ICSU General Assembly in Maputo (Mozambique), the World Data Centres were reformed and a new ISC World Data System (WDS) established in 2009. Expanding on the 50-year heritage of the ICSU World Data Centre system (WDC) and the ICSU Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data-analysis Services, most of the legacy data centers and services continued under the WDS.