Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

History is filled with bizarre stories. Here is but one. The story of perhaps the most elaborate

birthday card ever sent. On October 14, 1926, the United States received a greeting card from Poland for the United States 150th birthday.

It was a little late.

The anniversary of 4th of July was months in the past, but Poland had a legitimate excuse.

It took a long time to finish the elegant, gilded artwork, the photographs, the poems, the press flowers.

Oh, one more thing.

There were also 5.5 million signatures on the card.

Why so much love?

Poland wanted to show its affection towards the United States for what it had done in World War I.

After the war, Poland was finally independent after more than a century of domination under neighboring nations.

But the country was also in a state of famine and destitution, and the United States came to its aid.

The Americans sent trainloads of food.

In the years after the war, they gave half a billion meals to Poland's hungry.

Almost a decade later, the Poles did not forget.

And they decided to send the United States the best birthday card ever.

The card was really more like a book. the best birthday card ever.

The card was really more like a book.

The Good Wishes came on 30,000 pages and 111 bound volumes.

Nearly a sixth of Poland's population signed the card.

To put that in perspective,

that's like passing a card around Chicago

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