This 1964 stamp featuring the equestrian sport of show jumping was issued by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP) on the occasion of the Tokyo Summer Olympics (the Games of the XVIII Olympiad). Tokyo had won the rights to hold the games in 1958, having previously been awarded the games in 1940 then eventually refused the honour after Japan’s invasion of China. As fate would have it the outbreak of the Second World War saw the cancellation of what would have been the 1940 Helsinki Olympics. The Tokyo Games were significantly the first Olympics to be hosted by a non-Western nation. 2008, of course, will see another important first with China hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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