US #3389 was issued on this day in 2000 to celebrate 100 years of unity.
On April 17, 1900, chiefs on the island of Tutuila signed the Treaty of Cession of Tutuila, transferring control of American Samoa to the United States.
American Samoa’s earliest inhabitants arrived at the islands west of Samoa as early as 1500 BC. Samoa’s Manu’a Islands have one of the oldest recorded histories in Polynesia.
US #3839 was issued three days before Mancini’s 80th birthday.
Enrico Nicola “Henry” Mancini was born on April 16, 1924, in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.
Mancini spent much of his childhood in Pittsburgh, where his father got him piccolo lessons at the age of eight. By the time he was 12, Mancini learned to play piano and soon played in a band with his father called the Sons of Italy.
Cambodia #1217 was issued for da Vinci’s 540th birthday.
Renaissance Man Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Republic of Florence, Italy.
Da Vinci’s full birth name was “Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci,” meaning “Leonardo, (son) of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci.” He had little formal education but learned Latin, geometry, and mathematics as a child.
US #902 was issued for the 75th anniversary of the 13th Amendment.
On April 14, 1876, the Emancipation Memorial (also known as the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument) was unveiled in a special ceremony in Washington, DC.
Upon hearing of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, freed slave Charlotte Scott said, “Colored people lost their best friend on earth.” She then declared that she wanted to honor the fallen President with a memorial. Scott donated the first five dollars she earned as a free woman to her former master for that purpose.
US #1391 – This painting by Edward Hopper is part of the Met’s collection.
On April 13, 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.
The history of “The Met” dates back to 1866 in Paris, France. At that time, John Jay (grandson of Chief Justice John Jay) and a group of Americans visiting Paris began talking about creating a “national institution and gallery of art” to help educate the American people.
Russia #5231 was issued for Gagarin’s 50th birthday.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space.
Yuri Gagarin was born March 9, 1934, on a collective farm west of Moscow. Nazis threw his family out of their home during World War II and carried two of his sisters away. Yuri helped dig a dugout, which would be the family’s home until the end of the war.
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