The history behind today’s item is fascinating and too involved to post the whole story here. Briefly, this stamp from Zanzibar was first issued in 1896, some months after the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Hamed-bin-Thwain, whose portrait appears on the stamp, had died.
Charles Robert Darwin, British naturalist and author of Origin of Species, died on April 19th, 1882 at the age of 73. His five-year scientific research voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author.
In 1934, Italy hosted – and were eventual winners of – the Football World Cup. They defeated Czechoslovakia in the final after extra time was played. Four years later they again won the final of the competition, this time held in France, beating Hungary 4-2.
Many countries issue stamps annually featuring famous people. This is a very popular topic for many philatelists.
The United States Postal Service (USPS, which is heavily in debt) is destroying an entire run of stamps because the activities illustrated on three of the stamps in the fifteen stamp series have been deemed unsafe by the Presidential Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
The stamps were made to support a campaign driven by First Lady Michelle Obama to fight childhood obesity.
Sir Peter Markham Scott (born 14 September 1909, died 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman.
Scott was awarded a knighthood in 1973 for his contribution to the conservation of wild animals.
On December the 8th, 1980, I was driving home from my office in London when the newscaster on the BBC radio station I was listening too made an announcement that so shocked me that I drove through a red light at a very busy road junction – and with great good fortune managed to avoid a collision with another vehicle. The news that caused me to completely lose concentration was that former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed in New York – he was 40 years old.
On November 8th, 1978, American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell died aged 84. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades.