| National Postal Museum

5-cent stamp with illustration of Herbert Hoover

August 10, 1874

Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the US, is born in West Branch, Iowa. He was commemorated on a stamp in 1965.

block of four National Postal Museum stamps

August 6, 1876

Philatelic scholar Alfred F. Lichtenstein is born.

August 3, 1877

A mail stagecoach from Ft. Ross is robbed on the road between Point Arena and Duncan's Mills, California.

August 1, 1900

As of this day, all mail carried between homes on the same rural route must be postmarked. Small hand cancels and ink pads are supplied to rural carriers for this purpose.

1899 Puerto Rico overprint on 8-cent stamp of the United States

August 3, 1898

The Post Office Department opens the first US post office in Puerto Rico. The office is located in La Playa de Ponce.

De Havilland mail airplane at night, showing its landing lights

August 21, 1924

San Francisco-New York transcontinental night and day experimental airmail service begins. The run is 2,680 miles long and was the first to involve night flights between Chicago-Cleveland over the new lighted airways.

August 20, 1914

Fred Dixon robs the post office at Damascus, Ohio.

August 18, 1911

Charles Cameron and William Driscoll blow the safe and rob the Williamstown, Vermont post office.

August 15, 1914

James Shawn steals a mail pouch containing $6,500 at Clarksville, Arkansas. He is sentenced to 3 ½ years.

August 14, 1910

John Raymond robs the Oakland, Maine post office. A month later, he robs the Canton, Maine post office. He was sentenced to two years.

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