America the Beautiful -- Baltimore: Inner Harbor

The celebration of the bicentennial of the National Anthem took place at its birth place Baltimore, Maryland this weekend with appearances of the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and other celebrities and elected officials last night. The week-long Star-Spangled Spectacular, from September 10 to September 16, 2014, features more than 30 tall ships and U.S. Navy vessels, the Blue Angels airshows, concerts, festivals and fireworks.

Before the fireworks on September 13, 2014, one of the 21 songs performed at a concert, live on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances on PBS, from Baltimore's Pier Six Pavilion was "America the Beautiful" by Little Big Town and Kenny Rogers.

This Baltimore: Inner Harbor stamped card, issued by USPS on October 7, 1989, was one of the several "America the Beautiful" series I bought from the Israel I. Bick Coin, Currency, Jewelry and Stamp Shows early this year. The USS Constellation, shown on the postcard, is one of the 30+ ships accessible during the Star-Spangled Spectacular, It was the last all-sail ship built by the United States Navy. A sailing ship is usually referred to a wind-powered vessel. Among its early missions were disrupting the slave trade, and delivering famine relief supplies to Ireland.

The USPS postcard rate between April 3, 1988 and February 3, 1991 was 15¢.

Greetings from Connecticut

Postcard US-2928994 was a "Greetings from Connecticut" map card. Connecticut is the southernmost state in New England, with the city of Hartford as the capital. The state is named after the Connecticut River, seen on the map that approximately bisects the state, meaning in the Algonquian languages, a sub-family of Native American languages, for "long tidal river."

According to Wikipedia, Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the fourth most densely populated of the 50 United States. It was initially settled by Dutch settlers in present-day Hartford area. Then the first major settlements were established in the 1630s by England, which eventually led to one of the 13 Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution.

It was the 5th State admitted into the Union on January 9, 1788. (In comparison, Nevada joined the U.S. as the 36th State on October 31, 1864.) The State Flower is Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia), and the State Bird is American Robin (Turdus migratorius), as seen on the card.

Coca-Cola Airs "America the Beautiful" Commercial at Super Bowl

From MSNBC: "Coca-Cola celebrated diversity in America Sunday night with a powerful commercial that featured a variety of faces young and old, of every skin color, with roots all over the world, and -- for the first time in Super Bowl ad history -- a family with gay parents."

Postcard US-2303290 to Italy shows the Coca-Cola bottle evolution in its 120-year time span, as part of the popular American culture. From the early non-distinctive glass bottles, to the famous contour shaped bottles, to the green PlantBottle recyclable bottles, it captures the journey of a society with increased creativeness, environmental consciousness, and recognition of diversity. See more of the Coca-Cola History at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta and in Las Vegas.