May 24, 1844Reputable sourceWell documented
The Electric Telegraph
On the timeline · around May 24, 1844 ·
What happened
On 24 May 1844 Samuel Morse sent the message 'What hath God wrought' by electric telegraph from the U.S. Capitol in Washington to his assistant Alfred Vail in Baltimore, some 38 miles away. Using the dot-and-dash code that bears his name, the telegraph could carry information almost instantly over any distance a wire could reach.
Why it matters
For the first time, communication moved faster than travel. The telegraph tied together railways, markets, newspapers, and governments — the first link in a chain that leads to the modern networked world.
Sources
Related timelines
- The Internet & Computing → — Ancestor of the internet age