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
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- 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
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