Royal Mail is 500 - Five things you didn't knowPublished5 January 2016Image source, Royal MailImage caption, The Royal Mail all started when King Henry VIII made Sir Brian Tuke the first 'Master of the Posts' in 1516. He was in charge of organising a system where each town in the country had to have three horses available to transport packets of royal letters, and bring back news to the king. This was the beginning of the postal service.Image source, Royal MailImage caption, The first ever stamp was the Penny Black stamp, which went on sale on 1 May 1840 - which, unsurprisingly, cost a penny to buy. The first person to send a stamped letter was Thomas Moore Musgrave - it sold at auction for more than 拢50,000 in 1990.Image source, Royal MailImage caption, The first Christmas card went on sale in 1843, the same year Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. 1,000 of these Christmas cards were printed and sold for a shilling each, which was 12 pennies.Image source, Royal MailImage caption, Shakespeare was the very first 'commoner' to feature on a stamp, in 1964. The stamp was released to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his birth.Image source, Royal MailImage caption, The top three animals to feature on postage stamps are birds, dogs and horses.More on this storyBoy asks how much to send letter to Mars? Video, 00:00:35Boy asks how much to send letter to Mars?Published4 December 20150:35Famous UK bridges on new stampsPublished5 March 2015Pictures: Alice In Wonderland stampsPublished13 January 2015New Star Wars stamps go on salePublished20 October 2015