When the world’s first-ever airmail service landed in Allahabad in 1911

Allahabad, now Prayagraj, is widely known as a sacred city. If Varanasi (Kashi) is the Mecca of Hinduism, Allahabad (Prayagraj) is the Medina, a city on the banks of the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna and also supposedly the mythical river Saraswati, all considered—and even worshipped—as sacred rivers.

But not many know that the city had also made its mark in colonial modernity by recording the world’s first-ever airmail service.

On February 18, 1911, in a historic event, the world’s first-ever airmail service was launched at Allahabad. Considering that the Wright Brothers—Orville and Wilbur—had flown their first ever aircraft barely a few years earlier on December 17, 1903, the feat of first-ever airmail service being launched in Allahabad within 8 years was a historic moment.

The event has completed 110 years this month, and a First Day Cover has been released to mark the occasion.