Typically, everything in the world only has one birthday. And only a regular postcard marks three. What is the reason for this phenomenon?
Yes, an ordinary postcard celebrates as many as 3 birthdays - March 25, October 1 and November 30. And all because the postcard "took root" in our life not at once. The history of the postcard began in the middle of the 19th century - on November 30, 1865, Heinrich von Stefan, the postal director of the North German Union, proposed to create a new type of postal letter at that time - an open postcard (this is how the postcard was first named). But this idea was not destined to come true - von Stefan's proposal was rejected for an unusual (judging by the present times) reason - this form of sending the text was recognized as indecent. But this date can be considered the first date of birth of a postcard.
After 3 years, German booksellers offered their own version of the postcard - already with a ready-made set of words. The sender only needed to underline the necessary words. But this idea was not supported either. A little later, economics professor Emmanuel Herman revised the booksellers' version and proposed a new version of the card, which contained only 20 words. The Austrian Post Office liked this idea, and on October 1, 1869, the first postcard was issued. This is the second date of birth of the postcard, and it is this date that is considered to be the official date. Moreover, the first postcards contained only text without pictures.
The new form of printed matter was soon adopted in other countries as well. And after 9 years, the world standard was approved for the postcard - 9 by 14 cm. A little later, the dimensions were increased - 10, 5 by 14, 8 cm. Now there are several formats of postcards and the format is 10, 5 by 14, 8 cm, one of them …
And the third date is related only to Russia - on March 25, 1872, the first postcard appeared in Russia. And only 12 years later in Russia they opened their own printing of postcards. Moreover, at first the reverse side of the postcard was intended only for the address, and only from 1904 on the left side it was possible to write a small message.
Despite the 3 days of celebration, we can say that they all take place in a narrow circle. At least, there are no grandiose postcard birthday celebrations. But among the admirers of the postcard there can be various events dedicated to this day. On which they can arrange, for example, various master classes. Also for this day, printing houses can issue a limited edition of postcards with non-standard and rare illustrations.
Of course, now the postcard has lost its popularity. But a sufficient number of people continue to use postcards.
