Tractor Mailbox - Themed Homemade Mailboxes on Waymarking.com

A mailbox in the shape of a tractor.

Post a picture of yourself with the tractor.

Significant Years in U.S. Postal History

• 1639 Richard Fairbanks’ tavern in Boston named repository for overseas mail
  

• 1775 Benjamin Franklin was appointed first Postmaster General under Continental Congress
  

• 1777 Continental Congress authorized appointment of an inspector of dead letters
  

• 1789 Samuel Osgood was appointed first Postmaster General under Constitution
  

• 1823 Navigable waters designated post roads by Congress
  

• 1829 Postmaster General joined Cabinet
  

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

• 1838 Railroads designated post routes by Congress
  

• 1845 Act of Congress created star routes
  

• 1847 U.S. Postage stamps issued
  

• 1853 Stamped envelopes issued
  

• 1855 Registered Mail began - Prepayment of postage required
  

• 1858 Street letter boxes installed
  

• 1860 Pony Express started
  

• 1862 Railway Mail Service began experimentally
  

• 1863 Free city delivery instituted - Postage rates became uniform, regardless of distance - Domestic mail divided into three classes
  

• 1864 Post offices categorized by class - Railway Mail Service inaugurated - Postal money order system created
  

• 1869 International money orders offered
  

• 1872 Congress enacted Mail Fraud Statute
  

• 1873 U.S. Postal cards issued
  

• 1874 General Postal Union established (later Universal Postal Union)
  

• 1879 Domestic mail divided into four classes
  

• 1880 Congress established title of Chief Post Office Inspector
  

• 1885 Special delivery began
  

• 1887 International Parcel Post instituted
  

• 1893 First commemorative stamps issued
  

• 1896 Rural free delivery began experimentally
  

• 1898 Private postcards authorized
  

• 1902 Rural free delivery became permanent service
  

• 1911 Postal Savings System started - First carriage of mail by airplane sanctioned by the Post Office Department
  

• 1912 Village delivery offered
  

• 1913 Parcel Post began - Insurance offered - Collect on delivery (COD) offered
  

• 1914 Government-owned and-operated vehicle service instituted
  

• 1916 Postal inspectors solve last known stagecoach robbery
  

• 1918 Scheduled airmail service began - Non-profit second-class rates effective
  

• 1920 Metered postage authorized
  

• 1924 Scheduled transcontinental airmail service began
  

• 1925 Special handling offered
  

• 1927 International airmail began
  

• 1935 Trans-Pacific airmail began
  

• 1939 Trans-Atlantic airmail began - Autogiro service started experimentally
  

• 1941 Highway Post Offices started
  

• 1942 V-mail inaugurated
  

• 1943 Postal zoning system began in 124 large Post Offices
  

• 1948 Domestic and International Air Parcel Post inaugurated
  

• 1950 Residential deliveries reduced to once a day
  

• 1952 Non-profit third-class rates effective
  

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

• 1955 Certified mail introduced
  

• 1957 Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee created
  

• 1959 Missile mail dispatched from submarine to mainland Florida
  

• 1960 Facsimile mail offered
  

• 1963 ZIP Code and sectional center plan implemented
  

• 1964 Self-service Post Offices open Postmark simplified
  

• 1965 Optical scanner (ZIP Code reader) tested
  

• 1966 Postal Savings System terminated
  

• 1967 Presorting by ZIP Code became mandatory for second- and third-class mailers
  

• 1968 Priority Mail established as a subclass of First-Class Mail
  

• 1969 Patronage eliminated in Postmaster and rural carrier appointments
  

• 1970 Postal Reorganization Act signed - Express Mail began experimentally - MAILGRAM instituted
  

• 1971 United States Postal Service began operations - Postmaster General no longer in Cabinet - Labor contract negotiated through collective bargaining, a first for the federal government - National service standards established - Letter cancelled on moon by Apollo 15 mission
  

• 1972 Stamps by mail instituted - Passport applications accepted in Post Offices
  

• 1973 National service standards expanded
  

• 1974 Highway Post Offices terminated - Satellite transmission of MAILGRAMs began - Self-adhesive stamps introduced
  

• 1975 Post Office class categories eliminated
  

• 1976 Discount offered for presorted First-Class Mail
  

• 1977 Airmail abolished as a separate rate category - Express Mail became permanent new class of service - Final run of Railroad Post Office on June 30
  

• 1978 Discount offered for presorted second-class mail - Postage stamps and other philatelic items copyrighted
  

• 1979 Discount offered for presorted bulk third-class mail - Postal Career Executive Service (PCES) established - New size standards implemented
  

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

• 1981 Controlled circulation classification discontinued - Discount offered for First-Class Mail presorted to carrier routes
  

• 1982 Automation began with installation of optical character readers - E-COM (Electronic Computer-Originated Mail) offered - Last year Postal Service received public service subsidy
  

• 1983 ZIP+4 code instituted
  

• 1984 Integrated retail terminals automated postal windows
  

• 1985 E-COM terminated
  

• 1986 Field divisions created
  

• 1987 Stamps by Phone available - Multiline optical character readers ordered
  

• 1988 Small parcel and bundle sorters deployed - Delivery point sequence processing began
  

• 1989 First Postal Store opened

• 1990 International business reply mail offered - Easy Stamp allowed computer purchase of stamps - Independent measurement of First-Class Mail service implemented - Wide area barcode sorters added
  

• 1992 Remote barcoding system introduced - Area and district offices created for customer service and mail processing - Stamps sold through automatic teller machines - Flats barcoded for automated sorting
  

• 1993 New corporate logo introduced - Postal Service sold First Day Covers - National Postal Museum opened in Washington, D.C.

• 1996 Classification reform enacted - Standard Mail category created - Inspector General appointed by Governors - Postal Service released automated postage software via Internet - Self-adhesive coil stamps sold

• 1997 Postal Service launched public Internet site - Robotic containerization systems deployed - Flat-sorters modified to handle newspapers and magazines - Linerless self-adhesive coil stamps offered - StampsOnline instituted
  

• 1998 U.S. semipostal stamp issued
  

• 1999 Delivery Confirmation launched - PC Postage introduced - Resolve Employment Disputes Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly (REDRESS) implemented - POS (Point of Service) ONE began - AFSM 100 (Automated flat sorting machine) installed - Lance Armstrong of the USPS Pro Cycling Team won his first Tour de France
  

• 2000 Report of the USPS Commission on a Safe and Secure Workplace (Califano Report) issued - External First Class (EXFC) scores reached record high of 94 percent for the first time
  

• 2001 Business alliance with FedEx formed - Mail irradiated due to anthrax threat - Signature Confirmation launched
  

• 2002 Segway Human Transporter used experimentally - Transformation Plan released - President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service established - Record levels of service performance posted for First-Class Mail and Priority Mail