John F Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States was assassinated on this day - 22 November - in 1963. He was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, while riding in an open car, in a killing that sent shock waves across the entire world. Less than a year later on 29 May, 1964 the US Postal Service issued this stamp which featured both a portrait of the slain leader and also the John F Kennedy Eternal Flame, the presidential memorial found at the grave-site in Arlington National Cemetery. JFK's widow Jacqueline Kennedy lit the flame on 25 November, 1963, and it has never been extinguished since (barring one accidental dampening of the flame by school children).
The stamp quotes from Kennedy's inaugural address using words that fit the stamp perfectly:
And the glow from that fire can truly light the world
The 5 cent stamp was designed by Raymond Loewy and engraved by M. D. Fenton. It was printed by Rotary Press in a very large run of 500,000,000 stamps. Read the rest of this entry »
This United States postage stamp (Scott #1371) was issued on 5 May, 1969, just months before the Apollo 11 mission and the first moonwalk. Apollo 8 was, instead, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon and the first manned voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body i.e. Earth's Moon.
The design is based on a stunning photograph taken by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, which shows the Earth appear to rise above the surface of the Moon. In Life's 100 Photographs that Changed the World, photographer Galen Rowell called it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken." In fact, this Earthrise can only be seen from someone in orbit around the Moon. Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, together with Lunar Module Pilot Anders may not have been the first to walk on the lunar surface, but they were the first humans to set eyes upon the far side of the Moon.
The words "In the beginning God..." refer to the Apollo 8 Genesis reading during the television broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968, when each of the crew of Apollo 8 read from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the Moon.
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