THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

Introduction to the anniversaries

The anniversary dates of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have always created difficulties in interpretation and have shown inconsistencies in their celebration.

On 7 December 1944, the International Civil Aviation Conference, held in Chicago, concluded with the signature of the final act, containing the following main instruments:

1. The Convention on International Civil Aviation, designed to provide a complete modernization of the basic public international law of the air. After ratification by twenty-six States, it came into effect on 4 April 1947 with the constitution of the new permanent International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO.

2. The Interim Agreement on International Civil Aviation, designed to deal with the period intervening until the above permanent convention would be ratified. It came into effect on 6 June 1945, thereby constituting the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO).

From the above, several dates may be used to celebrate the anniversaries related to ICAO; the latter Organization left much confusion on its anniversary dates, as ICAO celebrated them as follows:

Anniversaries	Celebrated in
10^th anniversary	June 1955
15^th anniversary	April 1962
20^th anniversary	December 1964
30^th anniversary	April 1977
35^th anniversary	April 1982
40^th anniversary	December 1984
45^th anniversary	December 1989
50^th anniversary	December 1994
60^th anniversary	December 2004
65^th anniversary	December 2009

It can be seen from the above that, since its fortieth anniversary, ICAO has decided to use the ending date of the Chicago Conference, which created the permanent organization, for the celebration of its anniversaries, hence establishing a consistent pattern.

Special emblems used for the ICAO anniversaries

Notwithstanding the above confusion, several countries celebrated the 75^th anniversary of ICAO, either in 1979 (Belize, Paraguay and Uruguay) or in 1980 (Paraguay). In December 1903, the dream of thousands of years came true: the Wright brothers made the first successful flight of a manned, heavier-than-air vehicle. The above-mentioned countries strangely associated the 75^th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ triumph with ICAO, which has not reached yet its 75^th milestone.

Philatelic items commemorating the 75^th anniversary of ICAO

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