US #2765f from the 1943: Turning the Tide sheet.
On January 17, 1944, the Allies launched one of the longest and bloodiest fights of the Italian campaign – the Battle of Monte Cassino.
Although Italy had surrendered on September 3, 1943, Germany was determined to fight for control of the Italian mainland. In a series of head-on assaults, the Allies slowly battled their way up the Italian peninsula to Monte Cassino, 75 miles south of Rome.
US #2053 was issued for the 100th anniversary of the act.
On January 16, 1883, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, making major changes to American Civil Service System.
When a new US President began his term in the early 1800s, one of his first duties was to dismiss thousands of Federal employees and replace them with members of his own party. The “spoils system” was part of the privilege of the position, and recipients of the jobs were expected to contribute to the President and party’s campaign.
US #O117 – War Department Official stamp.
On January 15, 1943, construction on the Pentagon, the world’s largest office building, was completed.
In May 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt declared a state of national emergency, three weeks after Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. For many, it seemed very likely that the US would soon enter the war.
US #930 pictures Roosevelt and his upstate New York home at Hyde Park.
On January 14, 1943, Allied leaders met in Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the next stage of World War II.
The conference was a secret. Days before the meeting, President Franklin Roosevelt boarded a train going north to make journalists think he was going to his upstate New York estate. Instead, he secretly switched trains in Baltimore and rode down to Miami to catch a plane. This made Roosevelt the first president to fly in an airplane while in office, and the first to leave American soil during wartime.
US #4789 features a photograph taken for the 1963 album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash.
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash put on a concert at Folsom Prison. The resulting album that was recorded that day revitalized his career.
Cash first became interested in Folsom State Prison (America’s second-oldest prison) when he was in the US Air Force Security Service. During that service in 1953, his unit watched Crane Wilbur’s crime film, Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.
US #3431 – The first self-adhesive stamp in the Distinguished Americans series.
On January 12, 1932, Hattie Caraway became the first women elected to serve in the United States Senate.
Born in Bakerville, Tennessee, on February 1, 1878, Hattie Wyatt earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickson (Tennessee) Normal College in 1896. She taught school for a few years before marrying Thaddeus Caraway in 1902.
