The #stampoftheday for April 27, is the 1949 3-cent stamp issued to commemorate the 1948 election of Luis Muñoz Marin as the first elected governor of Puerto Rico.

Previously, either the King of Spain or the President of the United States appointed the island’s governor. (And it wasn’t until 1946 that the first Puerto Rican became full-time Governor of Puerto Rico!) Finally, a law passed in 1947 allowing Puerto Ricans to elect their governor and in November 1948, residents voted overwhelmingly for Muñoz Marin, the son of a well-known politician who had been a journalist before entering politics in the 1930s and serving as president of Senate of Puerto Rico from 1941-1949. Muñoz Marin, who supported the island’s commonwealth status, served as the island’s governor until 1965. He is known both for backing a host of economic, political and social reforms and for actively suppressing the Nationalist Party and others who sought full independence for the island.