Uniform Penny Post is approved. Mail can now be delivered for the cost of a penny by the sender, regardless of the distance to be travelled. This makes posting letters affordable for all for the first time. Letters do not have to be pre-paid, but cost the recipient double the postage rate if they are not pre-paid.

Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail patent Morse Code, a system of dots and dashes to represent each letter of the alphabet, but the first message is not sent for another four years.

Image: 150th Anniversary of Queen Victoria stamp showing Morse Key, issued 8 September 1987

The first postage stamps are issued. These are, most famously, the Penny Black, the Twopenny Blue, and the Mulready, an envelope upon which the postage rate is stamped.

Image: Penny Black (Phillips Collection)

Cooke and Whetstone's 'needle telegraph' is put on public display and members of the public are able to transmit messages to each other.

The world's first Christmas card is commissioned by Henry Cole, a civil servant who worked for Rowland Hill. 1,000 copies are printed, and Cole sells those he doesn't use for sixpence each.

Image: Example of world's first Christmas Card (2003-0476)

Samuel Morse transmits the first message in morse code on his new telegraphic system from Washington D.C. to Baltimore on 24 May, thus inaugurating an important new system of communication.

Image: Vocabulary of the Morse system' (2010-0422)

With the arrival of the railways and the opportunities for quicker delivery, the London-based mail coach makes its final journey. Horses are still used for mail delivery in certain areas, however.

Image: One of the last mail coaches and a train (2009-0071)