[2][3][4] Asteroid Day was cofounded in 2014 (the year after the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor air burst) by physicist Stephen Hawking, B612 Foundation president Danica Remy, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, filmmaker Grigorij Richters, and Brian May (Queen guitarist and astrophysicist).

[4][5] Remy, Schweickart, Richters, and May initiated[clarification needed] Asteroid Day in October 2014, which they announced during a press conference.

On Asteroid Day 2017, minor planet 248750 (discoverer M. Dawson) was officially named Asteroidday by the International Astronomical Union.

In February 2016, Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu and the Association of Space Explorers submitted a proposal to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations that was accepted by the subcommittee, and in June 2016, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space included the recommendation in its report.

[25] In its resolution, the United Nations declares "30 June International Asteroid Day to observe each year at the international level the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia, Russian Federation on 30 June 1908 and to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.