Hawaii’s First Post Office
December 21, 2007 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments |
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World Underdog Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Leka: Letter, missive HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The silent messenger.” (A letter)
WINTER SOLSTICE: 7:08pm. Shortest day of the year. First day of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Today thru December 30th: Maui Film Festival’s First Light Screenings 
December 21st, 1850: By Royal decree, the Hawaiian Post Office opens its doors, and it costs 42 cents to mail a letter to the mainland - one more penny than it does today.
Until the decree, postal delivery was handled by business or private people — and it wasn’t that private. Nothing really stopped people from reading your mail - not unlike the current administration’s war against privacy. For your money, you got the postmaster’s word that he’d give it to the first reliable sea captain he could, a captain who promised to deliver the letter to the San Francisco Post Office as soon as possible. Only one letter with the opening day postmark is known to exist today.
If you wanted to mail a letter within the Kingdom, it cost you ten cents.Truthfully, both amounts sound low, but for the times, they weren’t. For example, using the consumer price index, 42 cents in 1850 would be worth $11.19 cents, and 10 cents is $2.66.
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – December 21st
- 1620: 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
- 1891: Eight students play the first basketball game
- 1898: Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discover radium
- 1937: “Snow White” , 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon premieres
- 1945: General George S. Patton dies in a car accident in Heidelberg Germany
- 1948: The state of Eire (formerly Irish Free State) declares its independence
- 1968: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders launch aboard Apollo 8
- 1988: A New York-bound Pan Am 747 jumbo jet explodes over Lockerbie Scotland
- 1995: The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control
- 1996: After two years of denials, House Speaker Newt Gingrich admits to violating House ethics rules
BORN ON THIS DAY – December 21st
- 1804: Benjamin Disraeli, ritish PM
- 1879: Joseph Stalin, Russian dictator
- 1892: Rebecca West, journalist/novelist/feminist
- 1892: Walter Hagen, PGA golfer
- 1917: Heinrich Boll, writer
- 1918: Donald Regan, U.S. Secretary of Treasury
- 1924: Joe Paterno, football coach
- 1935: Phil Donahue, talk show host
- 1937: Jane Fonda, actress
- 1940: Frank Zappa, rock musician
- 1944: Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
- 1946: Carl Wilson, rock musician
- 1950: Jeffrey Katzenberg
- 1954: Chris Evert tennis pro
- 1955: Jane Kaczmarek, actress
- 1966: Kiefer Sutherland, actor
- 1966: Karri Turner, actress
- 1968: Khrystyne Haje, actress
- 1968: Brad Warren, country singer
- 1969: Julie Delpy, actress/director
- 1970: Rhean Boyer, cmusician
- 1971: Brett Scallions, rock musician
- 1976: Lukas Rossi, rock singer
- 1982: Luke Stricklin, country singer
