postal system: Quick Facts

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Nov. 8, 2026

News •

A new audit digs into the Postal Service’s system for handling undeliverable packages • Nov. 2, 2026, 2:47 PM ET (Federal News Network)

Pope Leo Votes by Mail, From the Vatican, in Illinois Midterm Election • Oct. 30, 2026, 11:56 AM ET (New York Times)

Photos and Videos

United States Postal Service worker

A sealed envelope with a red wax stamp is overlaid with lit birthday candles shaped as the numbers 2, 5, and 0, in front of a faded background showing a mailbox and a postal worker in a mail truck.

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Topics

postage stamp post office mail delivery mail collection mail handling mail sorting postal codes franking Today in History—April 3: The First Ride of the Pony Express Today in History—July 26: The USPS’s Revolutionary Origins regulatory agency history of publishing telecommunication military communication telemetry broadcasting mass transit water supply system waste disposal environmental infrastructure

Key People

Dalhousie, detail of an oil painting by Sir John Watson-Gordon, 1847; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie

governor-general of India

Reagan, John Henninger

John Henninger Reagan

United States political leader

The only woman whose name appears on the Declaration of Independence

Mary Katharine Goddard

American printer, publisher, and postmaster

Hart, Sir Robert 1st Baronet

Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet

British statesman

Sir Rowland Hill

Sir Rowland Hill

English administrator and educator