Barack Obama–44th President of USA

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital  in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas and was of mostly English descent.In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour Dunham, and attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from the fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.

A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

The stamp issued by Antigua & Barbuda on Jan 20, 2009

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.

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.

Popular Characters on stamps

 

Espana Post issued  the stamp series of the Popular Characters on June 11, 2010 features the famous person of medical science and music  which are represented by Gregorio Marañon and Julián Arcas.

Gregorio Marañón ( Madrid 1887-1960) was an eminent doctor and writer. He studied medicine at the University of Madrid and obtained a Phd in 1910. After a year of study and investigation in Germany, he returned to Madrid in 1911 where he studied endocrinology. In 1922 he became a member of the Academy of Medicine and years later founded the Institute of Medical Pathology of which he became director. He became university professor of endocrinology and published a large number of scientific works on this subject as well as the ageing process, the human behaviour and the vital processes of man besides publishing historical essays and biographies of great literary richness. He was elected Mp during the Republic but soon gave up on politics and moved to Paris during the Civil War. He returned to Madrid in 1943 and gradually resumed his medical work as well as his university and literary activities.

Sir Elton John in concert

The Tercentenary of British Gibraltar Elton John concert on the 10th September 2004 is undoutably one of the highlights of the Tercentenary celebrations calendar. With the majestic north face of the Rock as a backdrop, Sir Elton John performed on what is also Gibraltar’s National Day, at the Victoria Stadium.

The Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau have chosen to commemorate the occasion with a round Miniature Sheet featuring the £1.20 UK flag stamp also featured in the successful ‘Tercentenary’ miniature sheet released in April.

Blogger Tags: Elton John, Gibraltar, Tercentenary Concert

Urbanisme–Carlos Maria de Castro

Spain devotes an issue to Town Planning with a stamp honouring Carlos María de Castro, engineer, architect and town planner of the ensanche (widening) urban development of Madrid.

The ensanche of Madrid was motivated by the increase in population and the social and sanitary problems that arouse due to shortage of land for house building purposes since the city had gone from 220.000 inhabitants in the early XIX century to 300.000 by the end of 1860. This resulted in Government pondering the advantages of extending the city and the Minister of Fomento, Claudio Mollano, commissioning Castro to undertake the project of widening Madrid from 800 hectares to 2.294, multiplying its surface area by three.





The stamp depicts a portrait of Carlos María de Castro belonging to the Ministry of Fomento (Public Works) and in the background features a map of the ensanche of Madrid , kept in the Archive of La villa de Madrid.The stamp was issued on April 20, 2010.

Carlos Maria de Castro participated in many public works as architect and engineer of the Ministry of Fomento.