History of the U.S. Postal Service Timeline
| 1639 | First post office in America opened in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1775 | Benjamin Franklin named the first U.S. postmaster general. |
| 1788 | The Constitution gives Congress the right to establish post offices and post roads. The first postal rates are set. The cost for sending a letter to a destination within 450 miles is 25¢. |
| 1832 | First delivery of mail by railroad. |
| 1847 | The first postage stamps are printed: 5¢ for a Ben Franklin and 10¢ for a George Washington. |
| 1860 | The Pony Express begins carrying mail across the West. |
| 1863 | New postage rates are introduced, based on weight instead of distance. |
| 1896 | Rural Free Delivery begins. People living in rural areas no longer have to travel to a post office to pick up their mail. |
| 1912 | Parcel Post (package delivery) begins. |
| 1950 | Automatic letter sorters and facer-cancellers introduced. |
| 1963 | ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) codes are introduced. Before this innovation, each complete address had to be read during sorting. |
| 1983 | First barcodes printed on envelopes for more efficient mail sorting. |
| 1993 | National Postal Museum opens in Washington, DC. |