Winnie Mae: Lockheed 5C Vega

Outgoing postcard US-3755619 to Canada shows "Winnie Mae", a seven-seat monoplane Vega 5C, on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. It was made by Lockheed in 1930 with modified tail surfaces for higher gross weight operations. Flew by famed aviator Wiley Post, it set many records, including around the world flight in eight days by Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty in 1931; the first solo flight around the world in 1933; the world's first flight using pressure suit in 1935 that reached the stratosphere at 547 km/hr or 340 m/hr. The "Winnie Mae" was named for the daughter of F. C. Hall, the original owner and a close friend of Wiley Post.

Today it is the 112th anniversary of Wright brothers' first powered flights. According to USPS Postal Bulletin 22430 published on December 10, 2015, Kitty Hawk, NC Post Office is offering a pictorial postmark to commemorate the occasion. I am sending the card, along with several others, to get this special postmark. Such requests must be postmarked no later than 30 days following the requested pictorial postmark date.

Vista of Capitol through Cherry Blossoms

Outgoing postcard US-3372297 to Japan was a reproduction of vintage linen postcard Vista of Capitol through Cherry Blossoms, Washington, D. C. by D.C. Reynolds Co in the 1930s. It shows the famed cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin with the U.S. Capitol Building in the background. It has one of the USPS Gifts of Friendship stamps featuring the U.S. Capitol building surrounded by white and pink dogwood trees.

According to a USPS news release, "in a ceremony at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two of 3,020 flowering cherry trees gifted to the nation’s capital from the city of Tokyo. As a show of gratitude for this generous gift, former President William Howard Taft arranged for the United States to send 50 flowering dogwood trees to Japan in 1915. This reciprocal gift featured a species of tree native to the eastern United States and Canada."

Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio

Outgoing postcard US-3202778 to Czech Republic was a vintage card showing the Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the early multi-purpose stadiums built in 1930. Opened on July 1, 1931, with a capacity for baseball of 78,000, it can also seated 81,000 for football. The stadium was closed on December 17, 1995 and demolished on November 4, 1996 to make way for the new FirstEnergy Stadium that currently occupies the site.

Public Square and Union Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio

Outgoing postcard US-3139451 to Malaysia was a vintage card showing the Union Terminal Tower, a 52-story landmark skyscraper located on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. At 235 meters or 771 feet, it was the fourth-tallest building in the world when it was officially dedicated on June 28, 1930 during the skyscraper-building boom. The 4.4-acre Public Square was laid out in the original plan of the city conceived by its founder General Moses Cleveland in 1796. With the Union Terminal Tower on the southwest corner, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a Civil War Memorial can be seen in the center of the southeast section of the square on the postcard.

A Harvey Milk Stamp for Harvey Milk Day

Today is Harvey Milk Day, which is celebrated each year on May 22 in memory of Harvey Milk, a  California politician and LGBT rights activist who was born on May 22, 1930 and assassinated on November 27, 1978. The day was established by the California legislature and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009, as a day of special significance for public schools in California.

At the White House today, USPS is unveiling a new forever stamp featuring a photography of Harvey Milk, who became the fifth openly LGBT candidate in the U.S. and the first to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in January 1978. President Obama commemorated Harvey Milk in 2009 by posthumously awarding him the Medal of Freedom.

Harvey Milk stood outside his Castro Street Camera Store in San Francisco in 1977

Postcard US-2276102 to France shows a view of San Francisco where Harvey Milk called home since he moved from New York City in 1972.

Fremont Street, Las Vegas in 1930

May is National Historic Preservation Month. Postcard US-2545672 to Russia shows a historic photo of Fremont Street looking west around 1930. The train depot is at the end of the street. There was an Elks lodge, an ice cream and sweets store, a Western Union, and a hardware store. Doctors, dentists, and lawyers had their offices on the second floor of many of the buildings.

The Union Plaza Hotel was built at the location of the train depot in the early seventies. It continued to have the Union Pacific Railway Station attached until Amtrak discontinued passenger train services into Las Vegas in the late nineties. The area where the train station was has since been converted into additional casino space as part of the Plaza Hotel and Casino.