Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. United Nations General Assembly Opens Historic Session Tuesday Margaret Besheer For the first time in its 75-year history, leaders of the United Nations' 193 member states will deliver their annual speeches on the opening day of the world body's General Assembly on videotape instead of in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuesday's session will commence with a pre-taped message from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in keeping with a decades-long tradition first established in the 1940s, followed by U.S. President Donald Trump, as leader of the U.N. host country. Other prominent world leaders whose pre-recorded messages will be shown Tuesday will be Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, China's Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin of Russia and France's Emmanuel Macron. The only attendees in the cavernous General Assembly Hall to watch the videotaped speeches will be a single masked envoy representing each member nation, plus the European Union, the Holy See and the non-member Observer State of Palestine, in order to maintain social distancing. Hand sanitizer stations have been placed in the side aisles of the Hall and delegates will be obliged to wear face coverings, but not to undergo temperature checks. The U.N. marked its 75th anniversary Monday amid the grip of the global coronavirus pandemic, which has killedmore than960,000 people and sickened more than 31.2 million globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.'¯ "The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the world's fragilities. We can only address them together," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referencing the disease caused by the coronavirus. "Today, we have a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions." WATCH: UN 75th Anniversary .