Christine Becker, age 13, of Pittsfield, Mass., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMP ISSUED?

On May 6, 1840, the first postage stamp in the world was issued in London, England.

There were a number of important preliminaries to that first postage stamp. Public mails had started in a number of European cities during the 1400s with delivery of letters being handled by messengers. Then in 1516 the first successful public system was established between Vienna and Berlin.

In 1683 the London Penny Post began operating in England. Letters could be delivered by special couriers anywhere within London for dust a penny. Delivery outside of the city cost more. Unfortunately, service was not good.

Then in 1836 in Great Britain a man named Roland 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 early in 1840 and the first stamp was then issued in the same year.

The United States introduced postage stamps in 1847.

In the United States, a very special mail service called the Pony Express was established in 1860 between the cities of St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.

Going far back in history, runners carried messages for their rulers as long ago as 3000 B.C. There was no demand at that time for a general postal service because few people could read or write.

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a 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 completion of their appointed rounds." This quotation is now carved in front of the General Post Office in New York City and it is also used as the U.S. Postal Service's pledge to its millions of customers in all parts of the world.

In 1869, Austria became the first country in the world to use postal cards, and in 1874 the Universal Postal Union was established in Berne, Switzerland, to help in the exchange of mail between countries.

In 1971, Canada became the first country in the world to fly all first class mail addressed to people in foreign countries that weighed no more than 8 ounces. Many other countries now follow this practice.

The United States Postal Service today is one of the world's largest organizations. Each year its employees handle more than 100 billion pieces of mail. It has more than 750,000 employees and operates out of more than 30,000 local post offices.

Very early, stamp collecting became popular. Today it is one of the most popular hobbies.