HISTORY
The first known postal document, found in Egypt, dates back to 255 BC. However, postal services existed on nearly every continent in the form of messengers serving emperors and kings even before that.
King Louis XI of France set up a Royal Postal Service in 1477 employing 230 mounted couriers.
The Royal Mail was created by King Henry VIII of England in 1516. From then until 1840, postage in the UK was generally paid by the recipient rather than the sender.
Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, was founded by order of King Sigismund II Augustus on October 17, 1558.
Many early post systems consisted of fixed courier routes. The picture below shows a post house on a postal route in 19th century Finland.
The UK was the first country in the world to use a date stamp on its post when the Bishopmark — now known as the postmark — was introduced in 1661. It got its name from the first Postmaster General, Colonel Henry Bishop, appointed to King Charles II, who said he wanted to guarantee ‘that no Letter Carrier may dare to detain a letter from post to post’.
Benjamin Franklin laid out the framework that would set up the American postal system. Franklin invested nearly 40 years to establish a reliable system of private communications in the colonies. He was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and then joint postmaster general of the colonies, a position he held until 1774 when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson's correspondence.
The Royal Mail was created by King Henry VIII of England in 1516. From then until 1840, postage in the UK was generally paid by the recipient rather than the sender.
Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, was founded by order of King Sigismund II Augustus on October 17, 1558.
Many early post systems consisted of fixed courier routes. The picture below shows a post house on a postal route in 19th century Finland.
The UK was the first country in the world to use a date stamp on its post when the Bishopmark — now known as the postmark — was introduced in 1661. It got its name from the first Postmaster General, Colonel Henry Bishop, appointed to King Charles II, who said he wanted to guarantee ‘that no Letter Carrier may dare to detain a letter from post to post’.
Benjamin Franklin laid out the framework that would set up the American postal system. Franklin invested nearly 40 years to establish a reliable system of private communications in the colonies. He was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and then joint postmaster general of the colonies, a position he held until 1774 when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson's correspondence.
The U.S. postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress on July 26, 1775, with Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general.
In 1776 the Congress chose Benjamin Franklin's son-in-law to succeed him as postmaster general. Franklin had sailed that October for France on behalf of the Continental Congress.
The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by United States President George Washington on February 20, 1792. Postage was 6 - 12 cents depending on distance.
The first mail carried by train traveled between Liverpool and Manchester on November 11, 1830.
The first pillar boxes in the UK come into use in St Helier, Jersey on November 23, 1852.
London's first pillar box was erected on the corner of Fleet St and Farringdon St. Green with 10 collections a day on April 11, 1855. Five other pillar boxes appeared in London that day.
Red became the official color of UK post boxes in 1874. The earliest boxes were green, to fit in with natural surroundings, but many people complained they couldn’t find them.
The Pony Express was a mail service that delivered messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages by horseback, keeping California in touch with the rest of the United States. Its 2,000 mile route from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, had to cross the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains. Each of the 186 stations were 10 miles apart where the rider would switch to a fresh horse. The mail service began operation on April 3, 1860.
Though famous, the Pony Express was actually a failed venture that bled money and lasted only a mere 19 months.
There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses.
Section 92 of the 1873 US Postal Laws and Regulations stated that mail deliveries be made "as frequently as the public convenience may require". Residential customers received mail two or three times a day until 1950 and some businesses received mail up to five times a day.
"Stagecoach Mary" was the first African-American woman mail carrier in the USA. She worked the route between 1885 and 1893 and never missed a day. She won the contract because she was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses (she was 60 years old at the time).
In 1900 in London there were 11 postal deliveries per day and nine collections.
A hot air balloon was used to carry mail for the first time in 1859. John Wise left Lafayette, Indiana, for New York City with 100 letters. He was forced to land after only 27 miles.
After the first African-American woman postmaster in the United States, Minnie Cox, was wrongly pressured out of her post in Mississippi in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt continued to pay her federal salary and punished the town by rerouting their mail to Greenville, 30 miles away.
In 1904, Laurie Island became the site of the first post office built in the Antarctic.
The "American Messenger Company" was started by two teenagers, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan in 1907. The company's name was later changed to "United Parcel Service."
The first official flight with air mail took place in Allahabad, British India in 1911, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
The world's first scheduled airmail post service took place in the United Kingdom between the London suburb of Hendon, North London, and the Postmaster General's office in Windsor, Berkshire, on September 9, 1911, as part of the celebrations for King George V's coronation and at the suggestion of Sir Walter Windham, who based his proposal on the successful experiment he had overseen in India.
The service was operated by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and used biplanes made by Short Brothers. The first flight was made by Lieutenant Frederick R. Sowrey, who carried 60 letters and postcards. The journey took about 20 minutes and the mail was delivered on time.
The service was a success and was extended to other parts of the UK in the following years. It also inspired other countries to start their own airmail services.
 |
| The first airmail flight in Germany, 1912. |
Up to June 13, 1920, parents had used the US postal service to post their children in order to save rail fares. On that date, sending children by Parcel Post was officially forbidden with the ruling that children are not "bees and bugs", the only postable livestock.
The new rule allowed the Postal Service to expand its delivery network to more rural areas, which was essential for connecting communities across the country. Today, having a mailbox or other receptacle for mail delivery is still a requirement for all households in the United States.
The postmaster general's position was considered a plum patronage post for political allies of the president until the USPS was transformed into a corporation run by a board of governors in 1971.
The postmaster general's position was considered a plum patronage post for political allies of the president until the USPS was transformed into a corporation run by a board of governors in 1971.
ZIP Codes, or Zone Improvement Plans, were introduced for United States mail on July 1, 1963. The ZIP Code system was created to improve the efficiency of mail delivery by providing a more specific way to identify addresses. Before ZIP Codes, mail was sorted by city and state, which could lead to delays in delivery, especially for mail that was going to rural areas.
ZIP Codes are five-digit codes that are assigned to specific areas within the United States. The first three digits of a ZIP Code identify a specific geographic region, while the last two digits identify a specific post office or delivery area within that region. ZIP Codes are used by the United States Postal Service to sort and deliver mail more efficiently.
The five-digit ZIP code system was initially introduced, but it has since been expanded to include additional digits for more precise regional and local sorting. The extended ZIP code format, known as ZIP+4, was introduced in 1983 and includes the original five-digit code plus four additional digits for increased accuracy.
World Post day happens each year on October 9 to highlight the importance of the postal service. The day The date was selected as it marks the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union by the Treaty of Bern of 1874 in Switzerland. Today The UPU is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates postal policies among member nations. October 9th was first declared World Post Day at the 1969 UPU Congress in Tokyo.
FUN POSTAL SERVICE FACTS
On November 10, 1958 the merchant Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond, the "most famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution. The diamond was sent to the Smithsonian through U.S. Mail in a box wrapped in brown paper as simple registered mail with $2.44 postage.
In 2001, the German Post office began training courses to teach dog psychology to postmen. Figures showed that 3,000 postmen a year are bitten by dogs in Germany, leaving 2,255 pairs of torn trousers and $12 million (£8 million) of medical bills.
In 2005, the Royal Mail admitted that Ascension Island in the South Atlantic had not received any post for three months because it had gone to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, by mistake.
As of March 2023, there are 154,965 post offices in India, more than any other country.
Four out of five Americans throw sweepstakes mailings into the trash.
The world's deepest post box is in Susami Bay in Japan. It's 10 metres underwater.
The American rock group The Postal Service was sent a cease and desist letter by the United States Postal Service for trademark infringement of their name. After negotiations, the USPS allowed the band to use their name in exchange for playing a free show at their national conference.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers 44% of the world's mail. This is because the USPS is the largest postal service in the world, with over 31,000 post offices and 600,000 employees. The USPS delivers mail to every address in the United States, as well as to over 200 other countries and territories.
The USPS is a self-funded government enterprise, which means that it does not receive any taxpayer money. The USPS generates revenue from postage, shipping, and other services.
The United States Postal Service photographs every piece of mail it processes. In 2012, it took more than 160 Billion photographs.
The United States Postal Service is the single largest employer of veterans (22% of the postal workforce) and nearly a third of the veterans are disabled.
The United States Postal Service has about 1,700 employees in Utah who read anything that the automated systems can't read like illegible addresses. About five million pieces of mail are read at this location daily. Seasoned employees generally average about 1,600 addresses read per hour.
The US Postmaster General is the second highest paid US government official behind the president.
The US Postal Service creed "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is a translation of the phrase by ancient Greek historian Herodotus which referred to mounted Persian postal couriers around 500 BC.
In Iceland, you can hand-draw a map on a piece of mail without an address, and it will still make it to its destination.
The Archangel Gabriel, bringer of messages, is patron saint of postal workers and the Post Office.
Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express
Cardboard Postage Boxes come with the incredible feature, which is easy to adjust the thickness of the material. Such as you can fix the thickness of postage boxes uk the cardboard material of which this packaging is made up of according to the requirement of the gift.
ReplyDeleteJust select the packing
ReplyDeletecustom packaging boxes below, build the signals and sends and position any order!