Why does Åland Post choose to feature on a stamp an explorer and orientalist with the Arabian name Abd-al-Wali? Well, he was born in Åland 200 years ago.

His given name was Georg August Wallin and he was born 24 October 1811 in the Åland municipality of Sund. In 1817, the family moved to Turku when his father was appointed County Treasurer of Turku and Pori County. Then 18-year-old Georg August entered the University of Helsinki in 1829 to study oriental languages and received his MA in 1836. Three years later, he travelled to St. Petersburg, where he met Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Sayyad al-Tantawi whose tales about the Middle East inspired the young scholar. Wallin conducted his first expedition in Egypt in 1843.

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published March 31st, 2011

The highly anticipated Royal wedding will take place on 29 April 2011 and will be watched by millions of wellwishers around the world.

The ceremony will be held at Westminster Abbey – chosen by the couple for its staggering beauty and 1000-year-old Royal history. It will no doubt be a day of tradition and extravagance, but most importantly a day of celebration.

Heads of state from around the world will be in attendance, as well as members of the British Royal family, and of course close friends and relatives. As the couple walk down the aisle as husband and wife, they’ll be embarking upon a journey of Royal proportions.

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published March 30th, 2011

The Soviet Union Aboard the Vostok 1 spaceship, the cosmonaut Jurij Gagarin (1934 –1968) makes the first orbital flight around the Earth and then lands in the Saratov region. He leaves the space capsule, which brought him safe and sound through the atmosphere, with an ejection seat and ends his historical space flight by parachute. The event marks the first milestone in the space conquest.

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published March 29th, 2011

Born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, on March 4, 1903, Carrie Best came into a world where the odds were stacked against a woman of colour. When she passed away in 2001, her work as a poet, author, journalist and fearlessly determined activist had done much to bring positive change to black Canadians. 

In 1946, a black woman named Viola Desmond mistakenly sat in the “whites-only” section of a theatre, and was arrested, convicted and fined. Earlier that year, Best had established The Clarion, one of Nova Scotia’s first newspapers for Black Canadians. Together the two women lobbied the provincial government to repeal its segregation laws, which it did in 1954.

In 1954, Best’s radio program, The Quiet Corner, hit the airwaves. From the late 1960s to 1975, she wrote a column on human rights for the Pictou Advocate and spoke out against, among other things, substandard conditions on native reserves and discrimination against black property owners.

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published March 25th, 2011

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a missionary and Jesuit explorer, was born in 1645 in Segno, located in Trento’s Val di Non. He began his high school studies at the Jesuit College of Trento and fi nished them in Tirol where he recovered from a serious illness and vowed to enter the Society of Jesus to devote his life to the missions in India. A few years after his priestly ordination he was destined instead for the mission to New Spain, present day Mexico, where he arrived in 1681.

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published March 23rd, 2011

Only six years after his death, John Paul II will be beatified on May 1st. The miraculous healing of French Sr. Marie Simon Pierre Normanda has been offi cially recognized and attributed to his intercession. The process which has led to the beatification of Karol Wojtyla is quite extraordinary since five years are usually required after death before starting a cause for beatification. Nevertheless, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the “reputation of holiness” which surrounded John Paul II, even when he was still alive, and he decided to allow the cause of beatification to begin just a few weeks after his death.

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published March 21st, 2011

The Royal wedding will be a truly special event, uniting nations in a celebration steeped in history, tradition, pomp and pageantry.

New Zealand Post is honoured to mark the occasion with a range of exclusive stamp collectables, each destined to become a treasured reminder of one of the most romantic and memorable events of the century.

 A Royal souvenir
The greatly admired couple are captured beautifully on the se-tenant set of two over-sized stamps (measuring 52mm x 37.5mm). Featuring a stunning metallic gold border, they portray William and Catherine in both a formal pose and an informal embrace. The denomination of both stamps is $2.40, which is the postage rate of a standard letter to the United Kingdom. That makes them perfect to place on the envelope when you send the happy couple your best wishes for their big day!  (read more)

published March 19th, 2011

The attractive design of this commemorative stamp, being issued on the occasion of the centenary of the Austrian football club, FK Austria Vienna, shows the club's emblem and photographic portraits of the four highly revered former captains, Luigi Hussak, Walter Nausch, Ernst Fiala und Herbert Prohaska.
The “Violets” as they are lovingly called after the team's colours, have been based in the Favoriten district of Vienna since 1973, and the club's history dates back to 1911, when the ” Wiener Amateur-Sportverein” (Viennese Amateur Sport Club) was founded by former players from the “Vienna Cricket and Football club” It has had its current name of Austria since the club became professional on 18th November 1926. As 23 times winners of the Austrian Championships and 27 times winners of the Austrian Cup, FK Austria Vienna is without a doubt one of the most successful Austrian football clubs. It has also enjoyed major international success, winning the “Mitropa Cup” in the 1930s, reaching the final of the European Cupwinners' Cup in 1978 and the semi-finals of the European Champions' League in 1979 and the European Cupwinners' Cup in 1983.

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published March 18th, 2011

Did you know that the creator behind many of the familiar cartoon superheroes of the 1940s and 1950s came from Saltvik, Åland?  Three of his superheroes now appear in an Åland stamp booklet.

 Paul Gustafson was born in 1916 in Saltvik. Like many other Ålanders of this époque, he emigrated to the USA with his family when he was five. Having studied at Quentin High School and Manhattan’s Cooper Union, Paul spent some years apprenticing under cartoonist Frank Owen, whose wife, Vera, was also born in Åland. At the end of the 1930s, Paul made a name for himself as an independent cartoonist creating many characters, mainly superheroes, for Marvel Comics.

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published March 17th, 2011

To commemorate a Lifetime of Service by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, a special set of stamps and souvenir sheets is being issued by the Ascension Island Post Office.

The year 2011 celebrates not only the 85^th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II but also the 90^th Birthday of Prince Philip. The couple married on 20^th November 1947 at Westminster Abbey and have four children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Family life has been an essential support to both the Queen and Prince Philip and the family usually spend Christmas together at Sandringham in Norfolk. 

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 2^nd June 1953 and during her reign she has seen Twelve Prime Ministers, Six Archbishops, Five Popes and Five Wars and Conflicts. She has attended 256 official overseas visits to over 129 different countries and she is the first British Monarch to visit China. She witnessed the Space landings in 1969 and has seen the rise of the digital age – television, mobile communication and internet.

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published March 11th, 2011

Jersey Post has issued four stamps to commemmorate 100 years since Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in recognition of her work with radioactivity.  Marie curie Cancer Care is named after the scientist herself and more information about the voluntary organisation is available at www.mariecurie.org.uk.  The set of stmaps celebrates the life and extraordinary achievements of this remarkable woman and others whose success and accomplishments are internationally recognised.

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published March 11th, 2011