On 24 May 1844 Samuel Morse, seated in the Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol in Washington, tapped out the message 'What hath God wrought' in his code of dots and dashes, which was received at a railway depot in Baltimore 60 km away by his assistant Alfred Vail. The electric telegraph, built on the work of Joseph Henry and others, spread rapidly across the world: the first transatlantic cable was laid in 1858, and the first permanent one in 1866. For the first time, news could travel faster than a messenger, and it changed business, journalism and war.
Before and after
- 6 March 1844Birth of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
- 16 April 1844Birth of Anatole France
- 22 May 1844Birth of Mary Cassatt
- 23 May 1844Origins of Bábism
- 24 May 1844Morse sends 'What hath God wrought'
- 3 June 1844The last great auks are killed
- 24 July 1844Birth of Ilya Repin
- 27 July 1844Death of John Dalton
- 15 October 1844Birth of Friedrich Nietzsche
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.