Colonial era – Earliest attempts at direct mail include seed catalogs sent to colonial farmers.
1775 – Benjamin Franklin appointed first Postmaster General under Continental Congress.
1842 – U.S. postage rates are standardized.
1844 – Orvis introduces its first catalog of fishing lure supplies.
1847 – The first general issue postage stamps go on sale in New York City on July 1. One, priced at five cents, depicts Benjamin Franklin. The other, a 10-cent stamp, pictures George Washington.
1860 – Pony Express started.
1863 – Free city delivery instituted. Postage rates become uniform, regardless of distance; domestic mail divided into three classes.
1867 – Penny postage aids distribution of informational circulars and advertising handbills.
1867 – Typewriter invented.
1872 – Aaron Montgomery Ward produces his first catalog.
1880 – The Business Address Company of New York is started as one of the first lettershops.
1890 – U.S. Postal Service institutes Rural Free Delivery (RFD) to facilitate mail delivery to rural areas.
1891 – National Cash Register Co. mails 4 million pieces. NCR pioneered the use of direct mail to get qualified business leads for its salespeople.
1897 – Sears, Roebuck mails 318,000 catalogs (this would grow to 1 million in spring 1904, 3 million in fall 1907 and 65 million by 1929).
1905 – Homer J. Buckley coins the term “direct mail” and founds Buckley-Dement of Chicago, the first company to offer direct mail creative services.
1912 – Mail order company L.L. Bean is founded.
1913 – Parcel post goes into effect.
1917 – The Direct Mail Advertising Association is founded. In 1973, the organization changes its name to Direct Mail/Marketing Association and by 1983 it becomes the Direct Marketing Association.
1917 – Charles W. Klasek, Sr., purchases equipment and forms the Circular Letter Advertising Company.
1918 – Airmail begins. Non-profit second-class rates become effective.
1920 – Metered postage authorized.
1920 – Mail Advertising Service Association formed. Name changed in 2001 to Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association.
1926 – Harry Sherman and Marshall Sackheim found the Book-of-the-Month Club.
1927 – The Doubleday Co. establishes the Literary Guild.
1943 – Postal zoning system begins in 124 large Post Offices.
Post World War II – Printing technology enables the use of four-color brochures. New promotional techniques such as stamps, sweepstakes and coupons advance direct marketing. This area also sees the rise of specialty item catalogs as well as catalogs from food companies, nurseries and other mail-order firms.
1946 – Advo Inc., founded in 1929, switches from hand delivery to mail. It will eventually become America's largest direct mail marketer, dispatching 16 million pieces of advertising to American homes every week. With an address list of over 126 million, comprising virtually every household in the United States, the company can deliver materials to a huge array of consumers.
1950 – Reader’s Digest starts it direct mail operations to promote its magazines, books and other products.
1952 – Non-profit third-class rates effective.
1953 – Publishers Clearing House is founded. Its first mailing includes 20 magazine subscription offers. In 1967 the company begins its wildly successful sweepstakes.
1955 – Following the Book-of-the-Month Club model, Columbia House is founded to tap into the youth population’s growing interest in music. In 1959, Columbia House uses the first business reply card bound into a magazine.
1956-1959 – Post Office begins using sorting machines, first for parcels and later for letters.
1961 – Franklin Mint begins direct mail promotions.
1961 – Time Inc. founds Time-Life Books. The company becomes an early pioneer in using house lists to develop new products and plan new business.
1961 – Lester Wunderman coins the term “direct marketing” in a speech to the Hundred Million Club (later the Direct Marketing Club of New York).
1963 – Post Office institutes ZIP Codes, although use is not mandatory.
1965 – Post Office installs first high speed optical character reader, at Detroit Post Office.
1967 – Post Office requires mailers of second- and third-class bulk mail to presort by ZIP Code.
1970 – President Richard Nixon on Aug. 12 signs legislation transforming the Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service. U.S.P.S. operations begin officially on July 1, 1971.
1976 – Discount offered for presorted First-Class Mail.
1978 – Discount offered for presorted second-class mail.
1979 – Discount offered for presorted bulk third-class mail.
1981 – Discount offered for First-Class Mail presorted to carrier routes.
1982 – Automation begins with installation of optical character readers.
1983 – Zip + 4 Code introduced.
Early 1980s – Deregulation of the banking industry allows financial service institutions more freedom in structuring their services. Direct mail becomes key to business expansion.
1980s and beyond – Computer technology advances the ability to create targeted mailing lists. Database management systems allow direct marketers to store, access and manipulate data and perform complex analysis at desktop (and later laptop) stations.
Late 1980s – Privacy concerns arise, leading the DMA to establish its Mail Preference Service.
1988 – Large increases in 3rd class postage rates result in lower catalog sales.
1990 – The 20th anniversary of Earth Day brings a new focus to the use of paper. Environmentalists’ attacks on “junk mail” give rise to more widespread use of recycling programs and use of recycled paper in direct mail.
1991 – USPS begins to test delivery point barcodes, essentially, an 11-digit ZIP Code.
1992 – Remote barcoding system introduced; flats barcoded for automated sorting.
1996 – USPS classification reform enacted. Postal Service releases automated postage software via internet.
1999 USPS launches Delivery Confirmation.
2002 – USPS launches Confirm service to provide tracking information to participating letter and flat mailers. Mailers print an identifying barcode, known as a PLANET Code, on their mail. Automated equipment reads the barcode and makes information available to the mailer via the Internet on the time, place, and operation that handled the mail.
2003 – Congress passes pension reform legislation shifting payment for postal annuitants’ prior military service from the U.S. Treasury to the Postal Service.
2006 – President George Bush signs law on Dec. 28 enacting first major postal reform since 1971. The law links future rate increases to the Consumer Price Index and gives the USPS more flexibility for pricing competitive products. It turns the existing Postal Rate Commission into a regulatory body with greater authority and responsibility, and returns the pension payment requirement to the Treasury Department.