Gillian Everett's photos with the keyword: SHC44

... from my old stamp album, page in PiP. The first Bulgarian postage stamp was issued in 1879. When the Second Bulgarian Empire collapsed in 1396, all the Bulgarian territories south of the Danube River became a principality within the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian struggle for independence during the 18th and 19th Centuries led to the April Uprising in 1876. The brutality of the Ottomans, in putting down the uprising, resulted in the Russian Empire declaring war on the Ottoman Empire in 1876. The Russian forces, with the aid of many Bulgarian soldiers, were victorious. On March 3, 1878, as a result of the Treaty of San Stefano, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro became independent kingdoms, and Bulgaria became an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire. The self-governing Principality of Bulgaria would not actually be free of Ottoman external control until October 5, 1908, when it became the Kingdom (or Tsardom) of Bulgaria. Of course, Bulgaria has an impressive (recorded) history, dating back to the 5th Century B.C., as part of the Ancient Greek geographical area known as Thrace, the Thracian province of the Roman Empire, and even as an Empire in its own right. These historical roots have been well documented on the postage stamps of Bulgaria. www.stamp-collecting-world.com/bulgarianstamps.html After World War II Bulgaria became one of states of the socialist bloc under the leadership of the Soviet Union. On 1st January 2007 Bulgaria became a member of the European Union.