United States Postal Service

The official postal service of the United States, it was originally a cabinet department, but was later converted to a government-owned corporation.

Timeline

1639 - Richard Fairbanks' tavern in Boston named repository for overseas mail

1775 - Benjamin Franklin, first Postmaster General under Continental Congress

1789 - Samuel Osgood[?], first Postmaster General under Constitution

1792 - On February 20 the Postal Service Act[?] establishes the United States Post Office Department.

1823 - Navigable waters designated post roads by Congress

1825 - Dead letter office

1829 - Postmaster General joins Cabinet

1830 - Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations established, later Office of the Chief Postal Inspector

1838 - Railroads[?] designated post routes by Congress

1845 - Star routes

1847 - Postage stamps

1852 - Stamped envelopes[?]

1855 - Registered Mail[?]

1855 - Compulsory prepayment of postage

1858 - Street letter boxes

1860 - Pony Express

1862 - Railway mail service, experimental

1863 - Free city delivery

1863 - Uniform postage rates, regardless of distance

1863 - Domestic mail divided into three classes

1864 - Post offices categorized by classes

1864 - Railroad post offices

1864 - Domestic money orders

1869 - Foreign or international money orders

1872 - Post Office Department established as an executive department by Congress

1872 - Congress enacts Mail Fraud Statute

1873 - Penny postal card

1874 - General Postal Union (later Universal Postal Union)

1879 - Domestic mail divided into four classes

1880 - Congress establishes title of Chief Post Office Inspector

1885 - Special Delivery[?]

1887 - International parcel post

1893 - First commemorative stamps

1896 - Rural free delivery[?], experimental

1898 - Private postcards authorized

1902 - Rural free delivery, permanent

1911 - Postal savings system

1911 - Carriage of mail by airplane sanctioned between Garden City and Mineola, NY; Earle H. Ovington, first U. S. mail pilot

1912 - Village delivery

1913 - Parcel post

1913 - Insurance

1913 - Collect-on-delivery

1914 - Government-owned and -operated vehicle service

1916 - Postal Inspectors solve last known stagecoach robbery

1918 - Airmail[?]

1920 - Metered postage

1920 - First transcontinental airmail

1924 - Regular transcontinental airmail service

1925 - Special handling

1927 - International airmail

1935 - Trans-Pacific airmail

1939 - Trans-Atlantic airmail

1939 - Autogiro service, experimental

1941 - Highway post offices

1942 - V-mail

1943 - Postal zoning system in 124 major post offices

1948 - Parcel post international air service

1948 - Parcel post domestic air service

1950 - Residential deliveries cut from two to one a day

1953 - Piggy-back mail service by trailers or railroad flatcars

1953 - Airlift

1955 - Certified mail

1957 - Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee

1959 - Missile mail dispatched from submarine to mainland Florida

1960 - Facsimile mail

1963 - ZIP Code and sectional center plan

1964 - Self-service post offices

1964 - Simplified postmark

1965 - Optical scanner (ZIP Code reader tested)

1966 - Postal savings system terminated

1967 - Mandatory presorting by ZIP Code for second - and third-class mailers

1968 - Priority Mail[?], a subclass of First-Class Mail

1969 - Patronage no longer a factor in postmaster and rural carrier appointments

1969 - First die proof of a postage stamp canceled on moon by Apollo 11 mission

1970 - MAILGRAM

1970 - Postal Reorganization Act

1970 - Express Mail[?], experimental

1971 - United States Postal Service began operation; Postmaster General no longer in Cabinet

1971 - Labor contract achieved through collective bargaining for the first time in history of federal government

1971 - Star routes changed to highway contract routes

1971 - National service standards established: overnight delivery of 95% of airmail within 600]] miles and 95% of First-Class Mail within local areas

1972 - Stamps by mail

1972 - Passport applications accepted in post offices

1973 - National service standards expanded to include second-day delivery of parcel post traveling up to 150]] miles, with one-day delivery time added for each additional 400]] miles

1974 - Highway post offices terminated

1974 - First satellite transmission of MAILGRAMs

1976 - Post office class categories eliminated

1976 - Discount for presorted First-Class Mail

1977 - Airmail abolished as a separate rate category

1977 - Express Mail, permanent new class of service

1977 - Final run of railroad post office on June 30

1978 - Discount for presorted second-class mail

1978 - Postage stamps and other philatelic items copyrighted

1979 - Discount for presorted bulk third-class mail

1979 - Postal Career Executive Service (PCES)

1980 - New standards require envelopes and postcards to be at least 3 1/2" high and 5" long to be mailable

1980 - INTELPOST (high-speed international electronic message service)

1981 - Controlled circulation classification discontinued

1981 - Discount for First-Class Mail presorted to carrier routes

1982 - Automation begins with installation of optical character readers

1982 - E-COM (Electronic Computer-Originated Mail, electronic message service with hard copy delivery)

1983 - ZIP + 4

1983 - Ended public service subsidy from federal government

1984 - Integrated retail terminals automate postal windows

1985 - Jackie Strange, first female Deputy Postmaster General

1985 - E-COM terminated

1986 - International Priority Airmail

1986 - Postal Service realigned; field divisions created

1987 - Small parcel and bundle sorters

1987 - Stamps by phone

1987 - Multiline optical character readers ordered

1988 - Inspector General's Act extends duties of Chief Postal Inspector

1989 - Universal Postal Union Congress in Washington, DC

1990 - Wide area barcode readers

1990 - Easy Stamp, allowing purchase of stamps through computers

1990 - International business reply service

1991 - Independent measurement of First-Class Mail service

1992 - Remote barcoding system

1992 - Reorganization: regions, divisions and management sectional centers replaced by area and district offices for customer service and mail processing

1992 - Stamps sold through automatic teller machines

Source: http://www.usps.gov/history

For a number of years, the US Postal Service is head sponsor of a professional cycling team, bearing its name. The team features Lance Armstrong, winner of the Tour de France from 1999 to 2002.

http://ircalc.usps.gov/weight.asp?Contents=1 USPS International Calculator, for determining rates world-wide.

Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)

George Mountagu and his Lady, whom I saluted, going lodged in the chamber just under me all this night) and showed Mr. Cooke and that being done, to our inn again: where I met Dr. Fairbrother good-natured man he is, and told us how the room we were in was the room their mischiefs in these counties. Having eat well, only our oysters carried with me from Impington, my own to be sent from Cambridge to After we had rode about 10 miles we got out of our way into Royston road, which was lame yesterday, grows worse to-day, that he could not keep pace misguided also a gentleman's man who had lost his master and thought us met with his master, by his coat a divine, but I perceiving Tom's horse time, and Will and I we rode before them keeping a good pace, and came to bad. Here I fell into acquaintance and eat and drank with the divine, though resolved to have lodged there, yet for company would out.

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Licence of article: GNU FDL.
Original source @ wikipedia.