Organizing the simultaneous release of 30 international collectible postage stamps may seem like a sticky situation, but thanks to William D. Cox, the stamps were released on this day in 1979. The entrepreneur had a varied career, from lumber tycoon to owner of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. Having connections with both Walt Disney Productions and the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation, he was able to champion a program to release three sets of 10 stamps to commemorate the International Year of the Child.
The stamps released in the Turks and Caicos Islands were themed around the ocean,
including a playful dolphin tossing Donald Duck in his inner tube into the air and a scuba diving Mickey making friends with fish under the sea. The stamps from the island of Dominica featured some of Disney’s main characters in humorous musical instrument-themed images, including cowboy Goofy playing a guitar aboard a rocking horse, and Mickey and an octopus playing a xylophone. The last of the stamps released on this day were issued in Grenada and were sports-themed, showing Donald Duck in the high jump with springs on his feet and Goofy about to leap a hurdle—with a trail of fallen hurdles behind him, of course!
