48 Years Ago Today...

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.

Stamp Released: May 29, 1964

He is thought to still be atop the list of best presidents (by public opinion polls). He was the youngest person ever elected into office, and at the time succeeded the oldest president (Eisenhower). However, today the oldest president who served in office was Ronald Reagan.

I was not alive (or even thought of) when President Kennedy was in office, and as such, I was not alive when he was shot. Though I must admit, I am strangely fascinated by his death. I suppose that may not be uncommon as there is a bit of mystery and (dare I say) conspiracy surrounding his assassination. I won't go into further details, though I thought I would share that little bit with you.

Happy President's Day

So, there was nothing overly interesting in the postal news today. Same things as always...more branches of the post office closing. Such a depressing topic. And thus I decided that I would write about President's Day..a day early. So, if you are lucky to know a lot about stamps and presidents..then you might want to skip this post. (I promise I won't hold it against you).

The very first stamps in the United States were issued July 1st 1847. Two stamps were issued at that time. The first was a brown 5 cent stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin. This was pretty fitting considering he was the first Postmaster General of the United States.



The second stamp issued was a black 10 cent stamp featuring George Washington.



Both of these stamps were imperforate meaning that they needed to be cut apart with scissors or a knife. Wouldn't that be something if we still had to do that today?

Ready for some interesting facts? (Then again if you already know them..then they might not be interesting to you. So I guess I should have said...'Ready for some facts that were interesting to me?' )

In 1938 the Postal Service issued a Presidential Stamp Issue. This issue included all 29 Presidents through Calvin Coolidge. They were issued in a range of denominations. There were also stamps issued that were Martha Washington, The White House, and another Ben Franklin half penny stamp.



All told, 38 of our Presidents have been featured on US Postage. Just goes to show that they are probably one of the most popular deigns on our stamps.

So, if you stuck through this whole post..I appreciate it and I do hope that I was able to teach you a little something. And as always, thank you for reading my rambles.