Calendar coincidences

On this French National day, while France - its leaders and the spectators of the rock concert at the feet of the Eiffel Tower at least - are trying to convince they are the heirs of our glorious Republic, let's go one week later.

The next 21 July, astrophilatelists will celebrate the forty years of the first man on the Moon... with the help of many postal operators other than the one concerned, the United States' one. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail is publishing a Smiler Sheet, a sheet of stamps se-tenant with overpaid topical labels, while competitor dealers ordered their owns to the Royal Mail.

The 21... for an European. The 20 July evening then in the United States.

A date that helps me get to this Postcrossing postcard, full of coincidences: we are going to celebrate the sixty-first anniversary of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler by a group of military, on 20 July 1944. First step for the Walküre operation.

Right after the fail, Stauffenberg (above portrait) was shot without trial. Moltke (below), founder of the plotting groupe the Gestapo named "Circle of Kreisau", already arrested, was sentenced to death and executed in January 1945.

Tribute from the sender. A will to link the two passions of the receiver: philately and history. Cancellation date: 8 May 2009, when we remembers the end of Nazi Germany and of the World War Two in Europe.