Lake Placid Winter Olympics

This stamp commemorates the 3rd Winter Olympic games held at Lake Placid, New York from February 4-13, 1932. It was also the first Winter Olympics held on American soil. The stamp was issued on January 25, 1932 about a week before the opening ceremonies. At the Lake Placid post office where the stamp first went on sale, the demand was so great that State Police had to be brought in to control the crowd. The Post Office sold its entire supply of 400,000 stamps within a few hours. The Winter Olympics were held at Lake Placid again in 1980 when sports history was made when the United States hockey team defeated the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal.