World Post Day

 

On 9 October each year we celebrate World Post Day.

Did you know the UK Penny Black, featuring Queen Victoria's portrait was issued on 1 May 1840 and it was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp.

The day marks the anniversary of creation of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in Bern in Switzerland.  Then, in 1969, the Universal Postal Union Congress was held in Japan and they declared October 9th World Post Day.  These days, countries from all around the world celebrate postal systems everywhere!

Nearly 445 billion letters are delivered around the world every year.

In the UK, the peak period for the Royal Mail (the UK postal system) was 2005-2006 when they delivered around 84 million items every day and had around 14,376 Post Offices across the country!

A number of events will be held worldwide to celebrate the day, including workshops on the art of stamp making and information and seminars about stamp collecting.

Often around this special day, postal services issue special commemorative stamps, so all you budding philatelists (that's stamp collectors to you and me!) should keep your eyes peeled on the World Post Day website!

The day is supported by the United Nations (UN), and you can also find out more about the history of the postal service at the site.

Indian Air Force day & World Sight day

Air Force Day

The Air Force Day was officially started celebrating at 8^th of October in the year 1932 as an auxiliary air force of Indian Empire. The Indian Air Force, air arm of the Indian armed forces, has its prime responsibility of securing the Indian airspace as well as to carry out the aerial warfare during any clash.

 

World Sight Day is an important advocacy and communications opportunity for the eye health community. It is a great time to engage with a wider audience – a patient’s family, those who seldom get an eye exam, diabetics – and showcase why eye health needs everybody’s attention.

World Sight Day 2015 will be on 8 October 2015. This year’s call to action:

Eye care for all

This year, IAPB urges you to focus on everybody who needs eye care services – everybody. Think of all the groups of people who need eye care – especially the most vulnerable or the ones most in need. What can we do to bring eye care to them all? How can we ensure that access to eye care is not limited by gender or geographic location, or even financial status? Do remember, ‘Eye Health’ also includes rehabilitation and assistive services for those with irreversible vision loss. 

This World Sight Day, let’s do something that will draw attention to the great unmet need in eye care services.