US #1193 pictures Friendship 7, which carried John Glenn on the first successful American orbit of the Earth. Click image to order.
On January 31, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 2 launched Ham the Chimp into space.
Begun in 1958, Project Mercury was the program to launch the first American into space. Before sending people into space, NASA did a series of unmanned test flights, leading to Mercury-Redstone 2.
U.S. #1284 from the Prominent Americans series. Click image to order.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York.
Sometimes called the stamp-collecting president, Roosevelt began collecting stamps at the age of 8. Roosevelt credited the hobby with helping him learn geography, partial recovery from polio, and managing the stress of being Commander in Chief. Even as war raged, he managed to spend some time with his collection every day. Over time, he built a collection nearly 1 million stamps.
US #1787 was issued for the 50th anniversary of The Seeing Eye. Click image to order.
On January 29, 1929, the Seeing Eye, the oldest guide dog school in the US, was established.
The seeing eye dog movement began in Europe in the 1920s. At that time, American Dorothy Harrison Eustis was living in Switzerland and set up a breeding and training facility for German shepherds. Working with a trainer and geneticist Elliot S. Jack Humphrey, she used a scientific method to train police dogs to be intelligent and responsible.
US #4740 – The first Global Forever stamp. Click image to order.
On January 28, 2013, the USPS issued the first stamp in its Global Forever Series. These stamps are used on international mail.
Up until the mid-to-late 1800s, mail sent to other countries was regulated by a number of different agreements that were binding only to signing members. Then in 1874, representatives from 22 nations met in Bern, Switzerland to discuss a better system, and to found the General Postal Union (later called the Universal Postal Union).
U.S. #2981e from the “1945: Victory at Last” World War II sheet. Click image to order.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp, marking the beginning of the end of the Holocaust.
The Nazis targeted European Jews and other ethnic groups, such as Gypsies, Poles, and Slavs, during World War II. Adolf Hitler considered these groups to be genetically inferior to his “Aryan” master race. Removing the Jews was one of the steps in Hitler’s plan for world domination.
US #966 was issued at the observatory in 1948. Click image to order.
On January 26, 1949, the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory first saw light.
The Hale Telescope and Palomar Observatory were the brainchildren of US astronomer George Ellery Hale. He had previously overseen the building of 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes at the Mount Wilson Observatory in the early 1900s. These telescopes helped to vastly increase our understanding of the universe, and also demonstrated Hale’s argument that we needed even larger telescopes.
