Qatar Development in the 1960's

Late in the 1960's a production film was made of Qatar's major projects.

As my main interesting is linking stamps to historical events, I though that linking the stamps to the infrastructure, security, agriculture fishery and so on would be an interesting project.

Hope you enjoy the short film.

 

World Cup series for collectors.

 I have had a few blogs related to the world cup, which I will list below before adding today's blog:

• Qatar - FIFA World Cup 2022 Issue
• Qatar Stamps - FIFA World Cup Stadiums
• Qatar - Football Mascots
• Qatar 2022 Mascot - La'eeb - Stamps
• Qatar FIFA 2022 World Cup Poster Stamp
• World Cup Team Flag Issue

Today I would like to review the Poster series of Qatar stamps and add a few more items that true collectors might appreciate.

While the first 12 stamps in the 2002 World Cup issue (see below) represent the official poster of the tournament as seen below, the remainder of the stamps in this series, and that includes all following issues (such as the 2006 Germany and the remaining 3 posters issued in December 2021).

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The below slide shows the final 9 official World Cup posters and their equivalent representation in Qatar issued stamps. as can be seen, the first of these was the 1986 Mexico World Cup poster which was represented by a mixture of the actual poster and the official logo of the tournament. From then onwards, Qatar opted to just use the official logo and make it into a poster, rather than use the official poster (I show both versions below).

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The official Qatar World Cup poster with corrected date is shown below.

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Although I only collect stamps, I presume any collector would like to see all previous World Cup Logos and Mascots which I show below.

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Surprisingly, most of the official ball for all world cups are available to purchase online for the serious aficionado. Below I list all the balls used. In recent years it has become fashionable for the final ball to have a slight different design - I do not include that design.

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Qatar stamps - The space race of 57 years ago

The 1950's and 60's saw the start of the space race. Part of that race began with the placement of satellites in space. I have writing about this space race in two previous blogs (21 September 2021 - First steps into the space program, and 23 September 2021 - Reaching for the Starts). 

This time around, I shall look a little closer at what is portrait in these stamps. The first is is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) issue of 1965 which celebrates the successful launch and operations of the first permanent geosynchronous satellites leading to the first world wide radio and television broadcasts.

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As can be seen from the below slide the satellite achievements included the televised Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, the report of the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy.

By 1966 the England World Cup was the first to be transmitted world wide in colour.

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NASA rocket - the Artemis - which is the proof rocket for the future moon exploration. Just like todays' Artemis launch. The original Gemini 6 was cancelled (initially scheduled to liftoff on the 25th of October 1965) by a technical fault.

The Gemini Rendezvous was the design proof concept for the Apollo moon exploration. This latter one required the moon lander to eventually rendezvous with the remaining part of the rocket for its eventual return to earth.

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Luckily most of the astronauts present in the two Gemini Rocket have been captured by a different set of stamps issued by Qatar, with the only exception of the Commander of Gemini 7 - Astronaut Frank Frederick Borman. Borman and Lovell set the a fourteen day spaceflight endurance record in Gemini 7 while waiting for the Gemini 6A Rendezvous. Was also the Commander of Apollo 8 (it being his second and last spaceflight). During this last trip they (Frank Frederick Borman, James Arthur Lovell and William Alison Anders) were the first astronauts to orbit the Moon.

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The video of the Gemini Rendezvous can be seen below.

World Cup Team Flag Stamp Issue

We are now at less than 3 months (actually 71) from the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup and so it is appropriate to show the schedule for the first stage of the competition (see below).

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This stamp issue is accompanied by four separate First Day Covers (matching the souvenir sheets). 

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Of the 21 World Cups, the trophy was held by just 8 countries (Brazil x5, Germany x4, Italy x4, Argentina x2, Uruguay x2, France x2 and England and Spain once each). As can be seen the trophy was taken to Europe some 12 times and the remaining 9 times was taken to South America.

Will this World Cup see a change - an Asian country take the trophy ?