On September 28, 1990, the US Postal Service issued two stamps commemorating the Compacts of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The stamps marked a relationship that recognized the two Pacific territories as self-governing and sovereign while maintaining close ties with the United States.

The story began after World War II. Japan had controlled many islands in the western Pacific under a League of Nations mandate before the war. After Japan’s defeat, the United Nations created the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. The United States administered this strategic trusteeship. It included the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Over time, the Caroline Islands developed into the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

The Trust Territory was not a single future country. Its island districts had different languages, histories, political goals, and relationships with the United States. During the 1970s and 1980s, local leaders and US officials negotiated separate political arrangements.

The Northern Mariana Islands chose a commonwealth relationship in political union with the United States. Its covenant took effect in 1978. Palau negotiated a Compact of Free Association but did not become independent until 1994, when its compact entered into force. The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands chose free association.

A Compact of Free Association did not make Micronesia or the Marshall Islands US territories. Each adopted its own constitution and government, controlled its internal affairs, and became sovereign. The agreements also provided US financial assistance and gave the United States responsibility for defense and security. In return, the United States retained certain strategic rights in the region.

The Compact with the Marshall Islands entered into force on October 21, 1986. The Compact with the Federated States of Micronesia followed on November 3. The United States formally recognized both countries as independent that year. The agreements ended their former status as United Nations trust territories, although the United Nations did not formally terminate the trusteeship for all of the former territory until later.

The 1990 stamp issue was a coordinated release involving the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. The Postal Service issued a se-tenant pair of 25-cent stamps, meaning the two designs were printed attached to one another. Micronesia issued a strip of three stamps, while the Marshall Islands issued one stamp, bringing the total to six related designs.

The US stamp for Micronesia paired the Micronesian flag with the US flag and the USS Constitution. The Marshall Islands stamp showed that country’s flag, a traditional canoe, and a stick chart. Marshallese navigators made stick charts from thin coconut ribs and shells. The charts helped teach how ocean swells, currents, and islands related to one another across long distances.

All six stamps were dedicated on September 28, 1990, at the Dean Acheson Auditorium in the US Department of State in Washington, DC. Additional ceremonies took place in Palikir, Pohnpei, and in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. The joint issue used postage stamps to recognize a diplomatic arrangement while also highlighting Pacific navigation traditions and national symbols.

Click here to read the text of the compact.

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On September 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book that challenged Americans to consider what happened after pesticides were sprayed. Drawing on scientific studies, government records, and reports from affected communities, Carson argued that chemicals meant to kill insects could also disrupt entire ecosystems.

Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She developed an interest in writing as a child, but she also loved the natural world around her family’s small farm. At the Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham University, she began as an English major before changing to biology. She graduated in 1929 and later earned a master’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University.

In 1935, Carson began writing radio scripts for the US Bureau of Fisheries, a predecessor of today’s US Fish and Wildlife Service. The following year, she became a junior aquatic biologist. She was one of the first women hired by the agency through the civil-service system. Her work included writing reports, editing publications, and explaining marine science to the public. She remained with the federal government for 15 years and eventually became editor-in-chief of its publications.

Carson also wrote books about the sea. Under the Sea-Wind appeared in 1941. The Sea Around Us, published in 1951, became a bestseller and won the National Book Award for nonfiction. Its success allowed her to leave government service in 1952 and write full time. Her third sea book, The Edge of the Sea, followed in 1955. These books established her as a careful researcher who could explain science in clear, vivid language.

During the 1940s and ’50s, the United States widely used synthetic pesticides. DDT had helped control insect-borne disease and protect crops. Yet it also persisted in the environment. Carson became concerned that pesticides were being applied over large areas with too little attention to their effects on birds, fish, mammals, beneficial insects, soil, and water.

Her investigation began in earnest after a 1958 letter from Massachusetts writer Olga Owens Huckins. Huckins described birds dying after aerial spraying for mosquitoes near her property. Carson spent four years examining scientific research and consulting specialists in toxicology, ecology, medicine, entomology, and wildlife biology. She did not argue that every pesticide use should end. Instead, she criticized indiscriminate spraying and urged more selective methods, stronger oversight, and greater use of biological controls.

Silent Spring first appeared in three installments in The New Yorker during the summer of 1962. Houghton Mifflin published the book on September 27. Its title referred to a spring in which birds no longer sang because poison had moved through the food chain. Carson described insecticides such as DDT, dieldrin, and heptachlor as chemicals capable of remaining in soil and water, accumulating in animals, and affecting species beyond their intended targets.

The book faced a forceful response from chemical manufacturers and some agricultural interests. Critics questioned Carson’s scientific qualifications and accused her of opposing modern agriculture. Carson answered that pest control should be judged by its long-term consequences, not only by its immediate results. Her documentation helped bring a technical subject into public debate.

President John F. Kennedy asked his Science Advisory Committee to examine pesticide issues after the book appeared. Its 1963 report supported the need for stronger controls and further research. Carson also testified before a Senate subcommittee in June 1963. That year, she received the Audubon Medal and the Cullum Medal from the American Geographical Society.

Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, less than two years after Silent Spring was published. She did not live to see the Environmental Protection Agency created in 1970 or the EPA’s 1972 cancellation of most remaining US crop uses of DDT. Those actions resulted from scientific research, public concern, legal challenges, and government decisions over many years. Still, Silent Spring played a major role in widening public concern about pesticide regulation and environmental contamination.

Click here to read some of Silent Spring.

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George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwine on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. A successful composer and pianist, he created beloved orchestral compositions, popular jazz standards, as well as Broadway and Hollywood hits.

Born to Russian immigrants, George was the second of four children. His older brother Ira would also grow up to be a songwriter. The family moved frequently as their father explored a variety of business ventures. They spent most of their childhood in the Yiddish Theater District. George and Ira often went to local Yiddish theaters and George occasionally performed on stage as an extra.

Gershwin showed little interest in music until he was 10 years old. It was at that time he heard a friend play violin and was moved by the sound. Shortly after, his parents bought Ira a piano, but George ended up falling in love with it and playing it more. George then sought out a piano teacher, studying under Charles Hambitzer until 1918.

Gershwin dropped out of school at 15 to work as a song plugger in New York’s Tin Pan Alley. He was paid $15 a week to perform songs to help sell sheet music. Gershwin then published his first song, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em, When You’ve Got ‘Em, You Don’t Want ‘Em,” in 1916, earning 50¢. That same year he began producing hundreds of songs for different music roll companies and self-playing pianos.

Gershwin briefly worked in vaudeville and found some success with his 1917 ragtime song, “Rialto Ripples.” He got his first national hit in 1919 with “Swanee,” which was made popular by performer Al Jolson. The first production for which he wrote the entire score was La, La Lucille (1919). Gershwin then collaborated with William Daly on the Broadway musicals Piccadilly to Broadway (1920), For Goodness’ Sake (1922), and Our Nell (1923).

Gershwin then composed his first major composition, Rhapsody in Blue, in 1924. It became his most popular work, emphasizing his talent for blending different musical styles, such as jazz and classical. In 1922, he worked on the experimental jazz opera, Blue Monday.

In the 1920s, Gershwin went to Paris for a while to study under French composers, but was turned down. Maurice Ravel told him, “Why become a second-rate Ravel when you’re already a first-rate Gershwin.” While in France, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris, which went on to become an American and European standard.

Over the course of his career, George and his brother Ira collaborated on more than 20 productions, including Lady Be Good (1924), Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), Show Girl (1929), and Girl Crazy (1930). These included popular songs “Embraceable You” and I Got Rhythm.” Their 1931 musical Of Thee I Sing became the first musical comedy to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the summer of 1934, Gershwin visited DuBose Heyward, author of the novel Porgy. Gershwin was inspired by this meeting to compose the music for the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). It was initially a commercial failure, as critics couldn’t decide if it was an opera or Broadway musical. It eventually became the most popular opera written by an American composer.

In 1935, Gershwin moved to Hollywood, California, and turned his attention to films. He wrote Shall We Dance for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and A Damsel in Distress for Astaire, Joan Fontaine, and Gracie Allen. In 1937, Gershwin began suffering from painful headaches, coordination issues, and blackouts. He collapsed on the night of July 9 and was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. They rushed a neurosurgeon across the country to remove it, but Gershwin died on July 11, 1937 at just 38 years old. His death at such a young age was a shock to the world. A memorial concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl that September.

Listen to several Gershwin tunes here.

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Shel Silverstein was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Before he became known for children’s poetry, he had worked as a military cartoonist, a magazine illustrator, a playwright, a recording artist, and a songwriter.

Silverstein grew up on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He attended Roosevelt High School and briefly studied at the University of Illinois before leaving college. He later attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. As a teenager, he began drawing cartoons because, as he later explained, he was not interested in sports and did not have a car. Drawing gave him a way to create his own world on paper.

In 1953, Silverstein was drafted into the US Army. He served in Japan and Korea and became a cartoonist for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. From 1954 to 1956, he drew the comic feature Take Ten. The experience gave him regular deadlines and a wide audience. He later said his work for Stars and Stripes helped launch his career.

After leaving the Army, Silverstein began selling cartoons to magazines. He also published collections of adult humor and drawings, including Take Ten and Now Here’s My Plan. His early work was often aimed at adults and could be satirical, dark, or irreverent.

Music became another part of his career. Silverstein wrote songs in folk, country, and popular styles. He wrote “A Boy Named Sue,” which Johnny Cash recorded live at San Quentin State Prison in 1969. Cash’s recording became a major hit and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. Silverstein also wrote “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’” recorded by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show; “One’s on the Way,” recorded by Loretta Lynn; and “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” later recorded by several artists.

Silverstein did not originally plan to write for children. The illustrator and author Tomi Ungerer introduced him to Ursula Nordstrom, the influential children’s-book editor at Harper & Row. Nordstrom believed Silverstein’s spare drawings and unusual sense of humor could work for young readers. Their collaboration led to books that used few words, black-and-white line drawings, and open-ended stories.

In 1963, Silverstein published Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, about a lion who leaves the wild to become a famous performer. The next year brought The Giving Tree, the story of a boy and a tree whose relationship changes as the boy grows older. The book has been interpreted in different ways. Some readers see a story of generosity, while others focus on its unequal relationship and the tree’s losses. Silverstein did not offer a single moral explanation for it.

His poetry collections brought his work into classrooms and libraries. Where the Sidewalk Ends, published in 1974, combined poems and drawings about children, animals, school, fears, wishes, and impossible situations. “Sick” follows a child inventing increasingly strange excuses to avoid school. “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” turns a household chore into an outrageous disaster. Silverstein’s illustrations often supplied a second joke or changed how a poem could be read.

A Light in the Attic followed in 1981. It became one of the most successful poetry books for children of its era and spent years on The New York Times bestseller list. Silverstein recorded an album of poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends, which won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children in 1984. His later books included Falling Up in 1996 and The Missing Piece and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, two fable-like stories about independence and relationships.

Silverstein kept a low public profile and rarely gave interviews in his later years. He died of a heart attack at his home in Key West, Florida, on May 10, 1999, at age 68. In 2005, Runny Babbit, a collection of poems built around switched beginning sounds in words, was published after his death.

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Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He would become one of the best-known writers of the Jazz Age, recording its energy, wealth, restlessness, and disappointments in novels and short stories.

Fitzgerald was named for a distant relative on his father’s side, Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His parents were Edward and Mary McQuillan Fitzgerald. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Buffalo, New York, where his father worked for Procter & Gamble. They also lived for a time in Syracuse before returning to St. Paul in 1908, after Edward Fitzgerald lost his job.

Fitzgerald showed an early interest in writing. At St. Paul Academy, he published a detective story, “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage,” in the school newspaper. In 1911, his parents sent him to the Newman School, a Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. There he worked with Father Sigourney Fay, an influential teacher and mentor. Fay encouraged Fitzgerald’s writing and later served as a model for Monsignor Darcy in Fitzgerald’s first novel.

Fitzgerald entered Princeton University in 1913. He did not earn a degree, but he immersed himself in campus writing. He contributed to the Princeton Triangle Club’s musical productions, wrote for the Princeton Tiger humor magazine, and worked on the Nassau Lit literary magazine. He also began a novel. Scribner’s praised its promise but rejected the manuscript. His grades suffered, and he left Princeton in 1917 while on academic probation.

That year, the United States entered World War I. Fitzgerald joined the Army and wrote a first version of his novel, then called The Romantic Egotist, while in training. Scribner’s rejected it but encouraged him to submit future work. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama. There he met Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice. The Armistice ended the war before Fitzgerald’s unit was sent overseas.

Fitzgerald had already experienced another formative romance. In 1915, while still a Princeton student, he met Ginevra King, a wealthy Chicago-area debutante, in St. Paul. Their relationship ended after about two years. Her world of money and social status helped shape several of his fictional young women, including Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise. It also influenced Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.

After leaving the Army, Fitzgerald moved to New York and worked for the Barron Collier advertising agency. He wrote short stories in his spare time and revised The Romantic Egotist. Scribner’s accepted the new version, retitled This Side of Paradise. Published in March 1920, the novel became a major success with young readers. Fitzgerald’s improved prospects persuaded Zelda to renew their engagement, and they married in New York on April 3, 1920.

The Fitzgeralds became associated with the decade’s parties, fashions, and new social freedoms. Yet their life was expensive. Fitzgerald supported himself in large part by selling short stories to magazines, especially The Saturday Evening Post. He later wrote for Collier’s and Esquire. Magazine work brought needed income, but it also took time from his novels.

His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, appeared in 1922. In 1925, he published The Great Gatsby, a compact novel about ambition, class, love, and illusion on Long Island. It received respectful reviews but did not become a major commercial success during Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Its reputation grew after his death, especially when Armed Services Editions distributed it to American troops during World War II.

Fitzgerald and Zelda lived in France during much of the 1920s and became part of the American expatriate community in Paris. There he formed a complicated friendship with Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald’s fourth completed novel, Tender Is the Night, appeared in 1934 after years of work. Its sales were disappointing.

He returned to Hollywood in 1937 under contract to MGM. Fitzgerald worked on screenplays and received his only screen credit for Three Comrades in 1938. He also began an unfinished novel about the movie business, later published as The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Hollywood on December 21, 1940, at age 44. His work was reassessed in the years after his death, and The Great Gatsby became a lasting part of American literature.

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