Sean Naipaul, age 11,  of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

 WHEN WAS THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMP ISSUED?

 Today the Canadian Post Office has over 8,500 branches across the nation and hires about 50,000   employees. In the United States there are about 32,000 post offices. A ZIP cope   system of sorting mail went into effect in the United States in 1963. A postal code using six letters and numbers went into operation across the Canadian provinces in 1973.

Runners carried messages for their rulers as long ago as 3000 B.C. There was no demand for a general postal service because few people could read or write.  The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the Persian postal system of 500 B.C. in these words:   "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift execution of their appointed rounds."    This quotation is now  in front of the General Post Office in New York City  is the postal service's pledge.  Public mails started durin   a 1400s. In 1516 the first successful public system was estab   ed between Vienna and Berlin.  In 1683 the L    on Penny Post began operating in England. Letters could be  anywhere within London for a penny. Outside of the city cost more.  Service was not good.

 Then in 1836 in Great Britain,  a man named Rowland Hill wrote a pamphlet suggesting a cheap, uniform rate for letters and adhesive postage stamps.  Previously, postmasters had written ''Paid'' on the outside of a sealed letter before it was sent.  Or, if payment had not been collected from the sender in advance, the money was collected from the person receiving the letter.  Hill's reforms were adopted in Great Britain in 1840. And on

May 6, 1840, the first postage stamp in the world was issued in Britain.  United States introduced postage stamps in 1847.  In the United States, a pony express mail delivery system was established in 1860 between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.  In 1869, Austria became the first country to use postal cards, and in 1874 the Universal Postal Union was formed in Bern, Switzerland, to help in the exchange of mail between countries.  Stamp collecting today is one of the world's most popular hobbies.  

 In 1971, Canada became the first country in the world to fly all first class mail weighing up to eight ounces addressed to people in foreign countries.  The United States' Postal  Service is one of the world's largest organizations.  About 750,000 persons are employed.