How Ethel Merman Helped Get America To Use ZIP Codes

Today in 1963, the US Postal Service officially started using ZIP codes as a way to quickly sort huge amounts of mail and get it to where it needed to go. How did they get Americans to adopt ZIP codes? A mascot named Mr. Zip and a jingle sung by Broadway legend Ethel Merman.

By |2024-12-07T20:44:04-05:00July 1, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

Henry Brown Escaped From Slavery By Mailing Himself To Philadelphia

On this day in 1849, Henry Brown escaped slavery from a Virginia plantation in a very unusual way: he arranged it so he could hide in a small wooden box that was sent to Pennsylvania. Here's some of his story.

By |2024-12-02T10:07:17-05:00March 29, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

“Stagecoach” Mary Fields, Montana’s One-Of-A-Kind Mail Carrier

Mary Fields was the first Black woman to receive a Post Office contract to deliver the mail, and in the Wild West, no less. Here's a little more about a pioneer who definitely made some history.

By |2024-12-02T09:53:07-05:00March 15, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

When Americans Could Mail Their Children From Place To Place

It was on this day in 1914 a family in Grangeville, Idaho sent a four year old through the mail to her grandmother in Lewiston, 73 miles away. And she wasn’t the only kid to travel this way.

By |2024-12-07T20:44:36-05:00February 19, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Will Kryptos, The Unsolvable CIA Puzzle Sculpture, Finally Be Solved?

Kryptos is a puzzle sculpture that’s been on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia since 1990. Three of its four coded messages have been solved - and now we have a clue that might reveal the fourth.

By |2024-12-07T19:50:24-05:00February 4, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |
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