This Day in History… October 15, 1817

Posted on October 15, 2019 by MysticStamp

Death of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko 

US #734 – was issued on the 150th anniversary of Kosciuszko’s American citizenship.  Click the image to order.

On October 15, 1817, Polish-Lithuanian General Thaddeus Kosciuszko died in Solothurn, Switzerland.

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was born in early February 1746 (sources generally say February 4 or 12), near Kosów, Lithuania (present-day Kosava, Belarus). The youngest son of a Polish-Lithuanian army officer, Kosciuszko came from a family with noble ancestry.

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This Day in History… October 14, 1890

Posted on October 14, 2019 by MysticStamp

Birth of President Eisenhower 

US #1383 was issued five months after Eisenhower’s death on what would have been his 79th birthday.  Click the image to order.

Born October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, Dwight David Eisenhower was the third of seven sons.  He was named David Dwight originally, but his mother later reversed the order of his first and middle names to avoid confusion with his father.  All the sons were nicknamed Ike, but only Dwight kept the name through adulthood.

When Dwight was two years old, the family moved from Texas to Abilene, Kansas, the town Eisenhower considered home.  After graduating from high school in 1909, Eisenhower began working at a creamery to pay for college.  When he discovered he could attend West Point Military Academy for free, he decided to apply and was accepted.

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Posted in October 2019, This Day in History | 4 Comments

This Day in History… October 13, 1754

Posted on October 13, 2019 by MysticStamp

Birth of “Molly Pitcher” 

U.S. #646 is an overprinted stamp from the series of 1922-23.

US #646 is an overprinted stamp from the series of 1922-23. Click the image to order.

On October 13, 1754, one of the women that inspired the nickname, “Molly Pitcher,” was born near Trenton, New Jersey.

Molly Pitcher was known for bravely supplying water to soldiers during the Revolutionary War, but became famous when her husband fell and she took up his place at a cannon.  She wasn’t one specific woman, but believed to have been a folk heroine inspired by a few different women.  One of the most recognized of these women is Mary Ludwig Hays (sometimes spelled Hayes).

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This Day in History… October 12, 1989

Posted on October 12, 2019 by MysticStamp

Start of the America Series 

US #2426 – The first stamp in the series picturing a Southwest carved figure. Click the image to order.

On October 12, 1989, the USPS issued the first stamp in the America Series.

The stamp series was a collaboration between the 24 Western Hemisphere countries in the Postal Union of the Americas and Spain (PUAS).  PUAS was originally founded in 1911 as the South American Postal Union to encourage the improvement of postal services.  The US joined the union in 1922.

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This Day in History… October 11, 1872

Posted on October 11, 2019 by MysticStamp

Birth of Harlan F. Stone

US #965 was designed to resemble the Famous Americans stamps. Click the image to order.

Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone was born on October 11, 1872, in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. 

Stone attended Amherst College before earning his bachelor of law degree from Columbia Law School in 1898.  He practiced law in New York City for a few years before returning to Columbia as a teacher and later the dean.

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This Day in History… October 10, 1917

Posted on October 10, 2019 by MysticStamp

Birth of Thelonious Monk 

US #2990 from the 1995 Jazz Musicians issue. Click the image to order.

Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Monk’s family moved to New York City in 1922, and it was there he started to play the piano at the age of six.  He was largely self-taught and went on to attend the Stuyvesant High School for the gifted, but didn’t graduate. 

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Posted in October 2019, This Day in History | 2 Comments