Gerd Kanter, Olympic gold medalist

25.09.2008

Gerd Kanter  was born  on May 6, 1979 in Tallinn, Estonia. Gerd Kanter is an Estonian discus thrower. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he took gold with a throw of 68.82 meters, one meter ahead of second-place finisher Piotr Malachowski of Poland.

On 15 March 2009 he won the European Cup Winter Throwing event in Los Realejos, Tenerife, Spain with 69.70. On 22 March 2009, he set a world indoor best 69.51 m in Växjö, Sweden. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics he returned to defend his world title. He had a best throw of 66.88 m, which was enough for the World bronze medal.

Economist Ragnar Nurkse, Centenary of his Birth

For his 100th anniversary on 5 October 2007, the Estonian Postal Service commemorated Nurkse with an international letter stamp. He was policy maker mainly in the fields of international finance and economic development.

Ragnar Nurkse is beyond doubt the only economist of Estonian descent with a truly international reputation and apparently also the internationally best known Estonian savant of all times.

 

 

 

Ragnar Nurkse was born on 5 October 1907 in Käru village, now Raplamaa county of the then Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire, son of an Estonian father who worked himself up from lumberjack to estate manager and an Estonian-Swedish mother. His parents emigrated from Estonia to Canada in 1928.  

Gustav Ernesaks, birth centenary of the composer and choir conductor

The Estonia Post issued the personalise stamp series on the first January 2008 that features Gustav Ernesaks. Gustav Ernesaks was an Estonian composer and a choir conductor. The issued stamp is only one stamp  depicted him was in conducting action and one First Day Cover.

Gustav Ernesaks was born on 12 December 1908 at Perila near Tallinn. After graduating from the Tallinn Conservatoire in 1931, he worked for a longer period as teacher of music and in 1944-72 as lecturer at the Tallinn State Conservatoire (Professor since 1945).

He conducted several choirs and in 1944 called into existence the celebrated State Academic Male Choir (RAM), serving as its chief conductor until 1975 and as its artistic director up to the end of his days.