1829 was a key year for innovation. In Britain, this was the year that the postal service was introduced, Sir Robert Peel introduced the police service, and George Stephenson won the Rainhill Trials near Liverpool, with his locomotive ‘Rocket’.

In the USA William A. Burt patented the typewriter, Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’ received its first public performance in Paris, and Oxford University won the first Boat Race. 1829 was also the year in which both the accordion and concertina were patented, in Vienna and London respectively.

On May 6th 1829 Cyril Damian (that’s the anglicised version of Cyrillius Demien, 1772-1847) patented the accordion in Vienna, Austria.

In 2009 the Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA) designated May 6th henceforward as World Accordion Day, with the objective being to foster: “A unified global effort to celebrate and promote the accordion”.

There is a list of events taking place in many countries to mark World Accordion Day on that official event website, and we welcome any additions to celebrate this great anniversary.