December 5th in stamps Mozart, Dumas, Pedro II, van Buren, Monet, Michael I of Romania

Here are some events that happened on December 5th. It could be an event or a person that died or was born on that day

1782 Born: Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862)

Martin Van Buren (born Maarten Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was the first president born after the independence of the United States from the British Empire. A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States secretary of state, and the eighth vice president of the United States. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, due in part to the poor economic conditions of the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and important anti-slavery leader, who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.


Some US stamps depicting Martin Van Buren

1791 Died:  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer and musician (b. 1756)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era.

Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized.

He composed more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".

Some stamps from various countries commemorating Mozart

1870 Died: Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (b. 1802)

Alexandre Dumas (born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (French for 'father'), was a French writer. His works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century for nearly 200 films. Dumas' last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by scholar Claude Schopp and published in 2005. It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier


Some stamps from France, Monaco, Romania and Liechtenstein depicting Alexandre Dumas

1891 Died: Pedro II of Brazil (b. 1825)

Dom Pedro II (English: Peter II; 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. His father's abrupt abdication and departure to Europe in 1831 left the five year-old as Emperor and led to a grim and lonely childhood and adolescence, obliged to spend his time studying in preparation for rule. He knew only brief moments of happiness and encountered few friends of his age. His experiences with court intrigues and political disputes during this period greatly affected his later character; he grew into a man with a strong sense of duty and devotion toward his country and his people, yet increasingly resentful of his role as monarch.

Pedro II inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, but he turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew to be distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, zealously guarded freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth, and form of government—a functional representative parliamentary monarchy. Brazil was also victorious in the Platine War, the Uruguayan War, and the Paraguayan War, as well as prevailing in several other international disputes and domestic tensions. Pedro II steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests. A savant in his own right, the Emperor established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture, and the sciences, and he won the respect and admiration of people such as Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was a friend to Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others.

There was no desire for a change in the form of government among most Brazilians, but the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état that had almost no support outside a clique of military leaders who desired a form of republic headed by a dictator. Pedro II had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the monarchy's future prospects, despite its overwhelming popular support. He did not allow his ouster to be opposed and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy. He spent the last two years of his life in exile in Europe, living alone on very little money.

The reign of Pedro II thus came to an unusual end—he was overthrown while highly regarded by the people and at the pinnacle of his popularity, and some of his accomplishments were soon brought to naught as Brazil slipped into a long period of weak governments, dictatorships, and constitutional and economic crises. The men who had exiled him soon began to see in him a model for the Brazilian republic. A few decades after his death, his reputation was restored and his remains were returned to Brazil with celebrations nationwide. Historians have regarded the Emperor in an extremely positive light and several have ranked him as the greatest Brazilian.

1926 Died: Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840)

Oscar-Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter, a founder of French Impressionist painting and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899, he began painting the water lilies, first in vertical views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life.

Stamps from Monaco and France depicting Monet's works

2017 Died: Michael I of Romania, fifth and last king of Romania (b. 1921)

Michael I (25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.

Shortly after Michael's birth, his father, Crown Prince Carol of Romania, had become involved in a controversial relationship with Magda Lupescu. In 1925, Carol was pressured to renounce his rights to the throne and moved to Paris in exile with Lupescu. In 1927, Michael ascended the throne, following the death of his grandfather King Ferdinand I. As Michael was still a minor, a regency council was instituted, composed of his uncle Prince Nicholas, Patriarch Miron Cristea, and the president of the Supreme Court, Gheorghe Buzdugan. The council proved to be ineffective and, in 1930, Carol returned to Romania and replaced his son as monarch, reigning as Carol II. As a result, Michael returned to being heir apparent to the throne and was given the additional title of Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia.

Carol II was deposed in 1940, and Michael once again became king. Under the government led by the military dictator Ion Antonescu, Romania became aligned with Nazi Germany. In 1944, Michael participated in a coup against Antonescu, appointed Constantin Sănătescu as his replacement, and subsequently declared an alliance with the Allies. In March 1945, political pressures forced Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government headed by Petru Groza. From August 1945 to January 1946, Michael went on a "royal strike" and unsuccessfully tried to oppose Groza's Communist-controlled government by refusing to sign and endorse its decrees. In November 1947, Michael attended the wedding of his cousins, the future Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in London. Shortly thereafter, on the morning of 30 December 1947, Groza met with Michael and compelled him to abdicate. Michael was forced into exile, his properties confiscated, and his citizenship stripped. In 1948, he married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma (thenceforth known as Queen Anne of Romania), with whom he had five daughters, and the couple eventually settled in Switzerland.

Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist dictatorship was overthrown in 1989 and the following year Michael attempted to return to Romania, only to be arrested and forced to leave upon arrival. In 1992, Michael was allowed to visit Romania for Easter, where he was greeted by huge crowds; a speech he gave from his hotel window drew an estimated one million people to Bucharest. Alarmed by Michael's popularity, the post-communist government of Ion Iliescu refused to allow him any further visits. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu in the presidential elections of the previous year, Michael's citizenship was restored and he was allowed to visit Romania again. Several confiscated properties, such as Peleş Castle and Săvârşin Castle, were eventually returned to his family.

Romanian stamps depicting King Michael I

November 13th in stamps Robert Louis Stevenson, Albert I, Petar II Njegos, Franz Joseph II

Here are some events that happened on November 13th. It could be an event or a person that died or was born on that day

1813 Born: Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, Montenegrin metropolitan, philosopher, and poet (d. 1851)

Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар II Петровић-Његош; 13 November 1813 – 31 October 1851), commonly referred to simply as Njegoš (Његош), was a Prince-Bishop (vladika) of Montenegro, poet and philosopher whose works are widely considered some of the most important in Serbian and Montenegrin literature.

Venerated as a poet and philosopher, Njegoš is well known for his epic poem Gorski vijenac (The Mountain Wreath), which is considered a masterpiece of Serbian, Montenegrin and South Slavic literature, and the national epic of Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Njegoš has remained influential in Montenegro and Serbia, as well in neighbouring countries, and his works have influenced a number of disparate groups, including Serbian, Montenegrin and South Slav nationalists, as well as monarchists and communists.

Stamps from Yugoslavia and Serbia depicting Petar II Petrović-Njegoš 

1848 Born: Albert I, Prince of Monaco (d. 1922)

Albert I (13 November 1848 – 26 June 1922) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 10 September 1889 until his death. He devoted much of his life to oceanography. Alongside his expeditions, Albert I made reforms on political, economic and social levels, bestowing a constitution on the Principality in 1911.

Prince Albert I of Monaco devoted much of his life to the study of the sea and oceans. At 22 years old, he embarked on a career in the then relatively new science of oceanography. Understanding the importance of the relationship between living creatures and their environment, he devised a number of techniques and instruments for measurement and exploration. Albert I was also the “instigator and promulgator” of the oceanographic science he contributed to create. He founded the Oceanographic Institute Foundation Albert I, Prince of Monaco is a private foundation recognized of public utility, established in 1906. It has two buildings: The Oceanographic Institute of Paris, now renamed Ocean House, and what became the world-renowned Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. This includes an aquarium, a museum, and a library, with research facilities in Paris.

He owned four, increasingly impressive research yachts, Hirondelle, Princesse Alice, Princesse Alice II and Hirondelle II. Accompanied by some of the world's leading marine scientists, he travelled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, making numerous oceanographic studies, maps and charts. In 1896, on an oceanographic survey of the Azores, he discovered the Princess Alice Bank.

Stamps from Monaco depicting Albert I 

1850 Born: Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist (d. 1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses.

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. Stevenson spent several years in search of a location suited to his health, before finally settling in Samoa, where he died.

A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. He is currently ranked as the 26th most translated author in the world.

His 2 most famous novels

Treasure Island (1883) His first major success, a tale of piracy, buried treasure, and adventure, has been filmed frequently. In an 1881 letter to W. E. Henley, he provided the earliest known title, "The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island: a Story for Boys".

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), a novella about a dual personality much depicted in plays and films, also influential in the growth of understanding of the subconscious mind through its treatment of a kind and intelligent physician who turns into a psychopathic monster after imbibing a drug intended to separate good from evil in a personality.

Stamps from Samoa, Western Samoa and the Cook Islands depicting Robert Louis Stevenson or his works

1989 Died: Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein (b. 1906)

Franz Joseph II (Franz Josef Maria Aloys Alfred Karl Johannes Heinrich Michael Georg Ignaz Benediktus Gerhardus Majella; 16 August 1906 – 13 November 1989) was the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein from 1938 until his death.

Franz Joseph was the son of Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein and Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria. He succeeded his childless grand-uncle, Prince Franz I, after his father renounced his right of succession in his favour in 1923.

During his reign women received voting rights for the first time, following a referendum on the topic (among men only) in 1984.

Franz Joseph was an extremely popular sovereign in Liechtenstein. He was the first ruling prince to live full-time in the principality. He also oversaw the economic development of Liechtenstein from a poor agricultural backwater into one of the richest countries (per capita) in the world.

July 24th in stamps Martin Van Buren, Borovikovsky, Alexandre Dumas

Here are some events that happened on July 24th. It could be an event or a person that died or was born on that day


1757 Born: Vladimir Borovikovsky, Ukrainian-Russian painter (d. 1825)

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (Russian: Влади́мир Луки́ч Боровико́вский, Ukrainian: Володи́мир Лýкич Боровикóвський, Volodýmyr Lúkyč Borovykóvs’kyj) July 24 O.S. (August 4, N.S.) 1757 – April 6 O.S. (April 18, N.S.) 1825) was a Russian painter of Ukrainian origin who dominated portraiture in Russia at the turn of the 19th century.

He became a popular portrait painter and created about 500 portraits during his lifetime, 400 of which survived to the 21st century. He had his own studio, and often relied on assistants to paint the less important parts of a portrait. His sitters included members of the imperial family, courtiers, generals, many aristocrats, and figures from the Russian artistic and literary worlds. Most of his portraits are intimate in style.

The most notable are:

Portrait of Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1794)
Portrait of E. N. Arsenyeva (1796)
Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina (1797)
Portrait of F. A. Borovsky (1799)
Portrait of Paul I, Emperor of Russia (1800)
Portrait of Prince A. B. Kurakin (1801–1802)
Portrait of Princess A. G. Gagarina and Princess V. G. Gagarina (1802).
Portrait of Serbian Prince Karadjordje' 1816


Some stamps depicting Borovikovsky  and or his paintings

1802 Born: Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (d. 1870)

Alexandre Dumas (born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (French for 'father'), was a French writer. His works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century for nearly 200 films. Dumas' last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by scholar Claude Schopp and published in 2005. It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier


Some stamps from France, Monaco, Romania and Liechtenstein depicting Alexandre Dumas

1862 Died: Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)


Martin Van Buren (born Maarten Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was the first president born after the independence of the United States from the British Empire. A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States secretary of state, and the eighth vice president of the United States. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, due in part to the poor economic conditions of the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and important anti-slavery leader, who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.


Some US stamps depicting Martin Van Buren

Zeppelin on stamps

This week I decided to show some of the Graf Zeppelin stamps.

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #127; Registration: D-LZ 127) was a German-built and -operated, passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled, rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life, the airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles (1.6 million km). It was designed to be operated by a crew of 36 officers and men. More about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin

United States of America
1930 Scott C13 - C15


Zeppelin over the Atlantic Ocean


Zeppelin between continents

Zeppelin passing Globe


1933 Scott C18


Airship "Graf Zeppelin "


Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic

1930 Scott C21


Airship over Dnepostroi Dam


1931 Scott C30- C33

Northpole issue, Graf Zeppelin and Icebreaker Malygin transferring mail


1930 Scott C12 and C13


Graf Zeppelin and "Call to complete 5 year plan in 4 years"


1931-32 Scott C15-C19

C15 Symbolical of airship communication from the Tundra to the Steppes
C16 Airship over Dnepostroi Dam
C17 Airship over Lenin Mausoleum
C18 Airship exploring Artic regions
C19 Constructing an airship


Italy - Aegean Islands
1933 Scott C20 - C25


Graf Zeppelin over Rhodes


Bolivia
1930 Scott C24-C26



No C8-C10 surcharged


1930 Scott C11, C12, C15, C17

Flight of the airship Graf Zeppelin from Europe to Brazil and return via Lakehurst, New Jersey


Partial sheet of one of the stamps from the set above


Brazil
1931 Scott C26, C27

C18-C19 Surcharged


Finland
1930 Scott C1

Scott 178 overprinted in red. For use on mail carried in Graf Zeppelin on return flight from Finland to Germany on September 24th, 1930

German Reich
Scott C43- C45


Graf Zeppelin flight to the Century of Progress International Exhibition in Chicago

Scott C56

Graf Zeppelin


Scott C40 - C42




Graf Zeppelin  polar flight

Scott C57 - C58


The Hindenburg


Greece
1933
Scott C5-C7




Zeppelin over Acropolis


Hungary
Scott C24 - C25

Turul carrying messenger


Iceland
Scott C9 block of 4



Scott C9 -  C11


Unknown


Liechtenstein
Scott C7 - C8
 

Zeppelin over Naafkopf Falknis range


Scott C15 - C16


Airship Hindenburg

San Marino
Scott C11 - C16

Cool looking surcharge

Video
Here is also a cool video of all these stamps, you can have this running as a nice background




Covers
Some cool looking covers from various countries