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Happy New Year

You may have been following my 1962 World Tour which features all of the stamps issued worldwide in that year -

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=707

My collection extends to covers (a mixture of commercial use, advertising, first day and other bits and pieces) so now that we have reached the 50th anniversary of that year, I thought a companion thread was in order - each day, I'll show a cover or covers postmarked that day in 1962.

If you have any 1962 covers feel free to post them BUT on the right day please

So to January 1.... Two first day covers from different continents.

First day cover marking the reunification of Cameroun:


Indian First Day Cover marking the opening of the Gauhati refinery:

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Peter

That's a great idea Peter! Cool idea for a collection as well...

Happy New Year!

Very impressive that you will be able to do a cover a day all year.

But as a fellow 1962-er, I have to quibble with your maths. Surely it's only the 30th anniversary (that's what I tell myself anyway)

Ha!

I stand corrected - 30 years it is

Time waits for no man - this year seemed to be the right time. Actually I am missing about 6 days at the moment but have a while to find them......

Cheers

Peter

To thank you for a great idea:

Great cover Nguyen Thanks for kicking off January 2

Three from me today, from a variety of countries.....one commercial (philatelic) use from Finland and two first day covers.

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Peter

Wednesday January 3rd 1962

Fidel Castro kicked off a busy year on this day in 1962 by being excommunicated by Pope John XXIII

Two covers for you today; first registered mail from Austria to the United States:



and a nice local cover from the Falkland Islands:

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Peter

As another 30 year old born in 1962 I'm looking forward to your September 4th cover/s. Great topic!!

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Collecting predecimal Australian Used Blocks.

There are more 30 year old Stampboards members than I thought

Thursday January 4th 1962
In 1962 the space race was in full flight (or float? ) - on January 4 it was announced at the Manned Spacecraft Center that a large “innertube” or “flotation collar” may be used to keep the Mercury capsule afloat after a water landing. Collar would be installed by Navy frogmen. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard took part in proving tests conducted on Chesapeake Bay.

A quartet of covers today; first from the New Zealand Scout Jamboree to the United States:



Next two first day covers on the same subject from UAR and Morocco:





and a nice commercial use from Morocco to Algeria:

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Peter

Friday January 5th 1962

A musical beginning - on 5 January the first album on which The Beatles play, "My Bonnie", credited to "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers" (recorded June 1961 in Hamburg), is released by Polydor.

Four more covers today; first an advertising cover from Millicent, South Australia:



First Day Cover from the Netherlands:



and a pair of First Day Covers from Poland:

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Peter

Saturday January 6th 1962


More music - on Jan 6 Bobby Vee hosted a March of Dimes benefit show in Houston, Texas. Bobby was a successful singer at the time and believe it or not got his start (at the age of 15) as the fill in act to replace Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper at the dance they were traveling to when their plane crashed in 1959.

Three covers today; an advertising cover (not the greatest condition) from France:



a first day cover from the United States:



and a great first day cover from the Somali Coast addressed to Aden:

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Peter

Sunday January 7th 1962

On January 7, Indonesian President Sukarno was on a speaking tour in Makassar, Sulawesi when a hand grenade was thrown at his motorcade. Three onlookers were killed and 28 injured.

Just one cover today: a nice commercial cover from Cambodia to France:

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Peter

Monday January 8th 1962

Sadly on January 8, 1962 the Netherlands suffered the worst rail disaster in its history when two trains collided near Harmelen. Ninety three people died, including the drivers of both trains.

A set from the Dominican Republic on two first day covers today:

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Peter

What a neat idea petercollects0. Unfortunately I have only three covers for that period but I will try to remember when the day comes up! It's going to be very interesting to see what is posted up here. What a history lesson!

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Glad you're enjoying it. I'm adding an "on this day" fact to set the context.

If you have any covers you want included during the year, scan and email them to me and I'll make sure they appear on the day.

Cheers

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Peter

Tuesday January 9th 1962

In 1962 the Cold War was going strong. On January 9, 1962 Cuba signed a trade pact with the Soviet Union and the United States conducted a nuclear test in Nevada.

On a less serious note, on this day the National Football League in the US prohibited the grabbing of face masks in tackles.

Just one cover today, from Malaya to the United States:

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Peter

Wednesday January 10th 1962

On January 10 – An avalanche on Nevado Huascarán in Peru caused 4,000 deaths.

(try as I might most of the "on this day" facts I can uncover are tragic ones )


Three covers today. First two from the Wilkes Australian Antarctic Base:




and a registered cover from Iraq:





The first cover where I've needed to show front and back to appreciate...

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Peter

Thursday January 11th 1962

A quote today from US President Kennedy's State of the Union message to Congress on January 11, 1962:
“With the approval of this Congress, we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space. Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon, any more than Charles Lindbergh’s real aim was to be first to Paris. His aim was to develop the techniques and the authority of this country and other countries in the field of the air and the atmosphere.
“And our objective in making this effort, which we hope will place one of our citizens on the moon, is to develop in a new frontier of science, commerce and cooperation, the position of the United States and the free world. This nation belongs among the first to explore it. And among the first, if not the first, we shall be.
“We are offering know-how and cooperation to the United Nations. Our satellites will soon be providing other nations with improved weather observations. And I shall soon send to the Congress a measure to govern the financing and operation of an international communications satellite system, in a manner consistent with the public interest and our foreign policy.

“But peace in space will help us naught once peace on earth is gone . . . ."

Two colourful first day of issue cards today from Chad:



Ironically, (given the thrust of the President's speech) also on 11 January a B52H set a new long distance record for flying without refueling......12,519 miles.

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Peter

Hi Peter, email sent. Let me know if they are OK. I forgot to crop them! I can redo them if necessary!

Hutch

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Thanks Hutch - nice scans

Will include them later in the year.

Here's another one for you - actually arrived in the post today, on its 50th anniversary:

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Peter

Friday January 12th 1962

On this day in 1962 Indonesia confirmed that it had begun operations in West Irian.

Two covers today. First another cover depicting the S.S. France:



and a cover with postmark celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Workers Party:

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Peter

Saturday January 13th 1962

On this day in 1962, "Discoverer 37", an American optical reconnaissance satellite was launched but failed to achieve orbit and was lost.

A variety of items today. Let's start with an Air Letter from Kenya to Scotland:



Next, a nice postcard from Libya to Malta:




A lovely first day cover from the Comoro Islands (thanks to Diver_Pete):



Finally two covers celebrating the first "tagged" stamps issued by Canada:





Looks like the giant Beaver is going to eat Parliament

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Peter

Sunday January 14th 1962

On this day in 1962, a Dutch warship sank an Indonesian torpedo boat after it approached the disputed territory of West Irian. On a lighter note, the National Football League Pro Bowl, was won by the all-stars of the NFL Western Conference, 31-30, on the last play of the game.

Just one cover today, a first day cover from Ethiopia:

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Peter

Monday January 15th 1962

On this day in 1962, Portugal abandoned the U.N. General Assembly due to debate over Angola.

First day covers from the Indonesian Ramayana Ballet issue today. The first one registered:





and a second, unaddressed featuring the 2 stamps not on the one above:

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Peter

Tuesday January 16th 1962


On this day in 1962, a military coup in the Dominican Republic, led by General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria, forced President Joaquín Balaguer to resign and to go into exile.

A lovely series of unaddressed first day covers from the Japanese National Parks issue to begin today:







and to finish a nice item of official mail from Papua and New Guinea:

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Peter

Wednesday January 17th 1962

On this day in 1962, a NASA X-15 jet flew to 3,715 mph and 133,000 ft. to test a new autopilot control system. The pilot was Neil Armstrong...

Today's three covers are all advertising covers to the same address:

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Peter

Thursday January 18th 1962

On this day in 1962, the US begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas.


Two covers today. First a registered cover from Antigua:



and one of my more unusual covers, sent by the "Philatelic Crusaders for Peace" from the U.A.R.:

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Peter

Friday January 19th 1962

Remember that Dominican Republic military coup from January 16?.......On January 19, 1962 a counter-coup occurs in the Dominican Republic; the old government returns except for the new president Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly.

Just the one cover today....

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Peter

I had not known of the date! But Nicaragua, in 2011, issued a stamp refering to 1962 depicting napalm:

Nguyen, was this from a set featuring horrible weapons or horrible wars?

I think 1962 was that period where the cold war was a its height, all these terrible advances in weaponry had been made during the world war, and the world hadn't yet managed to start controlling their use

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Peter

Saturday January 20th 1962

Trying to lighten the mood... Chubby Checker's "The Twist"was number one in the US and I think number 3 in the UK music charts. In Rugby Union, a fellow by the name of Dickie Jeeps captained England to a nil all draw with Wales

January 20th also marked the first anniversary of President Kennedy's swearing in ceremony....

Today we have a first day cover from the Davis Antarctic Base:



and a first flight cover, Paris to Puerta Rico:



Just the one cover today....

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Peter

Sunday January 21st 1962

On this day in 1962 NASA announced the launching of two Arcas meteorological sounding rockets from Kindley AFB, Coopers Island, Bermuda, the first of a series of tests to measure the structure and density of the atmosphere in support of an atmospheric re-entry experiment.

Today we have a pretty cover from Japan to Austria:

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Peter

Monday January 22nd 1962


On this day in 1962 the Organization of American States suspended Cuba's membership. It wasn't reinstated until 2009...

Three postally used covers today - first Algeria? to France:



next an advertising cover from Australia:



and last but not least and express post cover - Japan to the USA:

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Peter

Tuesday January 23rd 1962

On this day in 1962 the National Academy of Sciences’ Space Science Board report on the atmospheres of Mars and Venus was released. Prepared by William W. Kellogg of RAND and Carl Sagen of the University of California, it reported that available evidence suggests the existence of life on Mars and that space flights during the next decade would probably resolve this question.

After that fact it seems appropriate to start with a rocket cover:


next we have a first day cover from the Philippines:



and a nice cover from St Pierre & Miquelon:

Tuesday January 23rd 1962....continued

A commercial cover from Cameroun:



(pity about the scissor cut to the base)

and last but not least, one of the classic sets for those of my era growing up collecting stamps, a great first day cover from San Marino:

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Peter

Wednesday January 24th 1962

On this day in 1962 the East German government readopted conscription.

I found the 24th a tough date for some reason so I am cheating a bit today with a commercial cover with an arrival postmark of 24 January, although it is unusual - Sudan to Denmark:



any 24/1/62 covers warmly welcomed

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Peter

Thursday January 25th 1962

Small item in Singapore's "Straits Times" newspaper on this day in 1962...... Barbers who are members of the Barber Assistants' Union will go round to strike sites on their weekly off-day tomorrow to give free haircuts to strikers.


A nice variety of covers today. Let's start with a local use cover from South Vietnam:



Next a "first antarctic voyage" cover from South Africa:



A registered cover from British Honduras to the U.K. :



and last but not least, a registered cover from Nigeria:

(Looks like a stamp has come off this one sometime in its past)

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Peter

Friday January 26th 1962

Happy Australia Day

On this day in 1962, Ranger 3 was launched to study the Moon; it later missed the Moon by about 22,000 miles

Here's a nice cover from New Caledonia:


A commercial cover from Katanga to the United States:



and to mark Republic Day, a pair of Indian first day covers:

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Peter

Peter I have to ask HOW many of the 365 days from 1962 do you have covers for?

I'll run this thread in my next column. . . can you email me a high rez pic of this please?

Hi Glen,

At the moment I am missing 6 days, so 359 BUT I have one of these (Jan 28) in the mail from an American dealer

Yep, really like that cover - good choice scan on its way.

Cheers

Peter

Amazing effort .. let me know WHICH days you needed and I'll mention those.

Also the Katanga cover please - had never heard of it before.

Both scanned with the back of a Hagner behind them please to give a black key-line.

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A postage stamp issued in 1961; although Katanga was not a member of the UPU, its stamps were tolerated on international mail. Katanga was a breakaway state proclaimed on 11 July 1960 separating itself from the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In revolt against the new government of Patrice Lumumba in July, Katanga declared independence under Moise Tshombe, leader of the local CONAKAT party.

The new Katangan government did not enjoy full support throughout the province, especially in the northern Baluba areas.

The state is now Katanga Province, part of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The declaration of independence was made with the support of Belgian business interests and over 6,000 Belgian troops. Tshombe was known to be close to the Belgian industrial companies which mined the rich resources of copper, gold and uranium.

Katanga was one of the richest and most developed areas of the Congo. Without Katanga, Congo would lose a large part of its mineral assets and consequently government income.

The view of the Congolese central government and a large section of international opinion was that this was an attempt to create a Belgian-controlled puppet-state run for the benefit of the mining interests.

Not even Belgium officially recognised the new state despite providing it with military assistance.

A military force designated as the Katangan Gendarmerie, raised by the Tshombe government, was initially organised and trained by regular Belgian officers and subsequently by European mercenaries from various nations.

Katanga had a fair bit of influence on the stamp issues of 1962 because of Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary General of the United Nations, who had died a year before in a plane crash not far from the frontiers of the Congo. He was trying to resolve the issues around break away Katanga.

A bit of an aside for this thread but here's the Katanga entry from the 1962 World tour:

Katanga is now a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo but back in 1962 it was an independent country that had broken away from post independence Congo.

The only stamps issued that year reflect the times:



For further information on Katanga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katanga

If I recall correctly, the three crosses in the design of each stamp are traditional currency tokens.

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Peter

That Katanga item is a great piece. Covers from there and its 'companion' former-Belgian Congo breakaway, South Kasai (Sud-Kasai, with an umlau--double dots over a letter-on, IIRC, the first 'a') are not easy to find or cheap to obtain. There was a discussion about those 'entities' on a thread last year...somewhere...

The Nicaragua stamps are a strange subject matter in a way. Amongst all the pretty kittens and flowers and other thematic money-makers, they dropped a bomb like that (groannn everyone says). Given the country's checkered history, I wonder what the intent of the stamp issue was, a 'lest we forget' memorial, or a tribute of sorts?

I must remember to give a look-over my covers to see if anything is a '62. I have a fair number of commercial covers from Laos & Cambodia so there might be something. Being just "30" years ago, , it seems there's a lot of FDCs out there, but 'real' mail is harder to scrape together.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

You have hit the proverbial "nail on the head" Aethelwulf, fairly easy to find first day covers, commercial mail much tougher. You'll notice there are as large proportion of FDC here, although I try to use addressed FDC where I can - at least they have been through the mail.

Cheers

Peter

Saturday January 27th 1962

On this day in 1962, Peter Snell of New Zealand set a new world record for the mile, running the distance in 3 minutes, 54.4 seconds, at Cook's Gardens, Wanganui. Herb Elliott of Australia had held the record since August 6, 1958.

Two covers today, both from young, independent nations - at least in 1962

Tanganyika gained independence on 9 December 1961, less than 2 months before this was sent so they were still using up the stamps and stationery:



This one has "character"; not good condition but from Sierra Leone (who became independent on 27 April 1961):

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Peter

Sunday January 28th 1962

On this day in 1962, Johannes Relleke, a tin miner at Kamativi in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), survived 2,443 bee stings and earned a spot in the Guinness category "Most bee stings removed".

The 28th has proved most elusive. Just in the last week I purchased a cover online for this date, but it hasn't yet arrived. So today a small scan, taken from the website will have to suffice. I'll replace this when the original arrives:

Cover arrived 8 Feb, so here it is......

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Peter

Monday January 29th 1962

On this day in 1962, the Automobile Manufacturers Association of the U.S. announced that all 1963 model American vehicles would be equipped with amber-colored turn signals on the front, rather than being the same color as the headlights, which had been the standard since the signals had first been introduced in 1938.

Two first days covers from the same Swedish issue today:

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Peter

Tuesday January 30th 1962

On this day in 1962, three students at a girls' boarding school in the Tanzanian village of Kashasha began laughing, and other students reacted. Within six weeks, 95 of the school's 159 students were laughing uncontrollably, and on March 18, the school closed and sent the pupils back to their home villages. The mass reaction spread to the villages of Nshamba, Ramanshenye, and Kanyangereka and affected hundreds of people before halting in 1963.

Eight covers today. Let's start with a variety from the Australian Antarctic Territory:

Tuesday January 30th 1962....continued

There is a seemingly countless variety of AAT covers available for 30 Jan 62 - must have been a busy day with the canceller

Another Antarctic cover, this time from Chile:



for a change of pace, here's one from India:





and one from the Bahamas to finish:

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Peter