1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system was established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. During early colonial times in the 1600s, mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns. In 1753 Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight. By the time Franklin left the job of postmaster general in 1776, the mail system had routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789, at which time there were approximately 75 post offices in the country.
Copyright © 2025 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
