#179 Argentine...Thanks Viviana!

The $6 stamp was issued in 2009 celebrating International Philatelic Festival “Italy 2009”,showing Columbus Theatre in Buenos Aires.

The Teatro Colón (Spanish) (Columbus Theatre) is the main opera house in Buenos Aires.Considered one of the best five opera houses in the world, it was opened the 25 of May of 1908 with Verdi's Aïda.

The present theatre, the second with that name, opened in 1908 after twenty years under construction, and was inaugurated by Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli. The auditorium is horseshoe-shaped, has 2,487 seats , standing room for 1,000 and a stage which is 20 m wide, 15 m high and 20 m deep.

For many years Argentina was a prosperous country with a booming economy, and the Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time.

This FDC was issued in Mar.2010 commemorating Bicentenary of the May Revolution.

The May Revolution was a week-long series of revolutionary events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a colony of the Spanish Crown, which contained the present-day nations of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. These events are commemorated in Argentina as "May Week". The consequences of the events were that the viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, was ousted from office and a local government, Primera Junta, was instituted on May 25. The May Revolution is considered the starting point of the Argentine War of Independence, although no formal declaration of independence was issued at the time, and in fact the Junta governed in the name of the Spanish king. Similar events occurred in other cities of Spanish South America as news of the dissolution of the Spanish Supreme Junta arrived, and so the May Revolution is also considered one of the starting points of the Spanish American wars of independence.

This FDC was issued in Feb.2010 celebrating “South American Sails 2010”,An International Fixture Regatta for the Greatest Sailing Ships.

“Sails of South America 2010” has brought together magnificent sailing ships, among them frigates, schooners and brigs from various countries of the Americas and Europe to participate in the Bicentennial Regatta.

The event is organized by the navies from Argentina and Chile to celebrate the bicentennial of the first national governing board during the struggle of South American countries to break away from the then Spanish colonial empire.

The unique challenge has gathered thousands of navigators in the most important ports of the region, sailing emblematic places for the mariners of all times, like the circumnavigation of the mythical “Cape Horn”.

This FDC is National Children Drawing Contest issued in 2009 with theme "I Can Stop Tuberculosis".

Tuberculosis or TB (short for Tubercles Bacillus) is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans.Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air, when people who have the disease cough, sneeze, or spit. Most infections in humans result in an asymptomatic, latent infection, and about one in ten latent infections eventually progresses to active disease, which, if left untreated, kills more than 50% of its victims.

A third of the world's population are thought to be infected with M. tuberculosis,and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second.The proportion of people who become sick with tuberculosis each year is stable or falling worldwide but, because of population growth, the absolute number of new cases is still increasing.In 2007 there were an estimated 13.7 million chronic active cases, 9.3 million new cases, and 1.8 million deaths, mostly in developing countries. In addition, more people in the developed world are contracting tuberculosis because their immune systems are compromised by immunosuppressive drugs, substance abuse, or AIDS. The distribution of tuberculosis is not uniform across the globe; about 80% of the population in many Asian and African countries test positive in tuberculin tests, while only 5-10% of the US population test positive.