U.S. #680 pictures the Anthony Wayne Memorial in Maumee, Ohio.
On August 20, 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne led American troops to victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, there were no Native American representatives at the negotiations. So, they were left out of consideration when Britain ceded the Northwest Territory to the U.S.
U.S. #523 – The orange-red Franklin color error.
U.S. #523, the 1918 $2 orange-red Franklin error stamp, was first used on August 1918. But it would be two years before the error was discovered.
The ravages of World War I caused a famine in Russia and threw the rest of Europe into disarray. In the U.S., relief agencies as well as private individuals mailed food, clothing, machine parts and valuable Liberty Bonds to Europe. These packages were expensive to send by ship across the Atlantic and required high-value stamps. For this purpose new $2 and $5 stamps were issued in August 1918.
U.S. #3855 from a set issued to mark the 200th anniversary of the expedition.
Explorer, soldier, and politician Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774, in Ivy, Albemarle County, Virginia.
The son of a solider that died of pneumonia in 1779, Lewis relocated to Georgia after his mother remarried the following year. Lewis didn’t receive a formal education until he was 13, but until then he learned to become a skilled hunter and outdoorsman. He had a keen interest in natural history and learned from his mother how to gather wild herbs for medicinal uses.
U.S. #63 was issued on this day in 1861.
On August 17, 1861, the first of several Civil War era stamps was first used.
In 1860 and 1861, eleven Southern states left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, an action that resulted in the beginning of the Civil War. On April 12, 1861, the war erupted at Fort Sumter. Less than two months later, the United States discontinued postal services to the South.
U.S. #1506 was issued on the 100th anniversary of this event.
On August 16, 1874, Hard Winter Wheat, also known as Turkey Red, was first introduced in America.
In the 1760s, Catherine the Great of Russia invited German Mennonites to settle along the Volga and Karaman Rivers. She hoped to establish a great agricultural area there and believed they were the ones to do it. To encourage their settlement, Catherine offered them exemption from taxes and military service as well as help with their move.
U.S. #2445 from the Classic Films issue.
On August 15, 1939, The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
Film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) grew interested in producing a film version of The Wizard of Oz after Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved that adaptations of children’s stories could be successful. MGM bought the rights in January 1938, after which the script was written and rewritten several times, to be completed that October.
