(most early dates are approximate)
14: Rome sets up network of relay runners carrying messages 50 miles in a day.
100: Roman couriers carry government mail across the empire.
650: Arab rulers create a news service.
900: China’s Tang Dynasty has courier system with more than 1,600 stations.
1200: The University of Paris is granted its charter, starts mail, messenger
service.
1200: European monasteries communicate by letter system.
1280: In China, Kublai Khan establishes a pony express.
1305: Taxis family begins private postal service in Europe.
1464: The king of France establishes a postal system.
1500: During Ming Dynasty China, letter carriers serve private citizens.
1544: Spanish and German couriers are allowed to carry private letters.
1560: Legalized, regulated private postal systems grow in Europe.
1627: France introduces registered mail as a way to send money.
1639: In Boston, someone is appointed to deal with foreign mail.
1653: Parisians can put their postage-paid letters in mail boxes.
1659: Londoners get a private penny post for a short while.
1661: Postal service begins within the colony of Virginia.
1673: Mail is delivered on a route between New York and Boston.
1755: Regular mail ship runs between England and the colonies.
1775: Continental Congress authorizes Post Office.
1792: Postal Act promises mail regularity throughout U.S.
1794: First letter carriers appear on American city streets.
1810: Postal services consolidated under uniform private contracts.
1813: Congress authorizes steamboats to carry mail.
1815: 3,000 post offices in U.S.
1816: Post Office carries newspapers for less than 2 cents postage.
1818: Stamped letter paper is sold in Sardinia.
1836: Rowland Hill starts to reform British postal system.
1840: In China, thousands of post offices handle letters, packages, remittances.
1840: England starts penny post. Stamps sold. It’s cheap, so people
write more letters.
1845: U.S. postal reform bill lowers rates, regulates domestic and international
service.
1851: Newspaper postage cut in half; free distribution within county.
1852: Postage stamps are widely used.
1855: Prepayment of letters made compulsory in the United States.
1858: Mailboxes appear on American streets.
1860: Pony Express carries mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento.
1861: Telegraph brings Pony Express to an abrupt end.
1863: Large U.S. cities get free home delivery of mail.
1863: First international postal conference held in Paris.
1864: “Railway post office” sorts mail on trains.
1864: Postal money orders sold in U.S; $1.3 million in 6 months.
1880: First parcel post.
1869: From Austria, postcards.
1870: French postal authorities use hot air balloons during siege of Paris.
1873: U.S. postcard debuts; costs one penny.
1875: Universal Postal Union formed in Berne, Switzerland.
1885: U.S. Post Office offers special delivery.
1885: Trains are delivering newspapers daily.
1885: Mail rates for publications drop to a penny a pound.
1887: Montgomery Ward mails out a 540-page catalog.
1892: Invented in Iowa, the Addressograph enters the office.
1896: Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugurated.
1897: In England, postmen deliver mail to every home.
1905: In New Zealand, the postage meter is introduced.
1905: Photography, printing, and post combine in the year’s fad, picture
postcards.
1911: “Postal savings system” inaugurated.
1912: First mail carried by airplane.
1918: First regular airmail service: Washington, D.C. to New York.
1920: First cross-country airmail flight in the U.S.
1924: Daily coast-to-coast air mail service.
1929: Air mail is flown from Miami to South America.
1939: Air mail service across the Atlantic.
1959: Post Office tries, abandons effort to move mail by submarine-fired missiles.
1960: In Rhode Island, an electronic, automated post office.
1960: The Post Office experiments with facsimile mail.
1963: Postal ZIP codes.
1970: Postal Reform Bill makes U.S. Postal Service self-supporting.
1970: U.S. Post Office and Western Union offer Mailgrams.
1980: Public international electronic fax service, Intelpost, begins.
1983: ZIP + 4, expanded 9-digit ZIP codes, and postal bar codes are introduced.
1988: Government brochure mailed to 107 million addresses.
1992: Stamps sold by automatic machines.
1996: U.S. Postal Service handles nearly 600 million pieces of mail daily.
1998: Postage stamps downloaded from the Web, then printed, go on sale in the
U.S.
1999: Mule train still delivers mail down the south face of the Grand Canyon.
2000: U.S. Postal Service opens Internet postal store.
2003: Zip-Codes.com offers Zip-code information online.
2003: French Ministry of Culture bans the word “email.” Wants “courriel.”
