Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.

Samuel Morse was an American inventor, painter, and contributor to the development of the telegraph and Morse code. He was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and passed away on April 2, 1872, in New York City.

Morse initially pursued a career as a painter and gained recognition for his portraits. However, his interest in science and technology led him to explore the potential of the newly emerging field of electricity and communication. Inspired by the work of other inventors, such as William Sturgeon and Charles Wheatstone, Morse developed the concept of the electromagnetic telegraph.

In the early 1830s, Samuel Morse, along with his colleague Alfred Vail, designed and built a working telegraph system. The telegraph used a series of electrical pulses to transmit messages over long distances through a system of wires. Morse also created a code, which later became known as Morse code, to represent letters and numbers using combinations of dots and dashes. This code allowed messages to be encoded and decoded easily.

In 1844, Morse demonstrated the practicality of his telegraph system by sending the famous message, “What hath God wrought?” over a telegraph line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. This event marked a significant milestone in the history of communication, as it demonstrated the effectiveness of long-distance, instant communication.

The telegraph revolutionized communication by enabling messages to be transmitted quickly across vast distances. It had a profound impact on various industries, such as news and transportation, allowing information to be relayed rapidly and efficiently. Morse’s invention played a crucial role in the development of global communication networks.

Samuel Morse’s contributions extended beyond the telegraph. He also made significant contributions to the fields of photography and maritime safety. Morse developed an interest in photography and experimented with daguerreotypes, contributing to the popularization of this early photographic process in the United States. Furthermore, he invented a system of signaling for maritime use, known as the Morse code, which allowed ships to communicate important messages using light signals.

Samuel Morse’s work as an inventor and his contributions to communication technology established him as one of the pioneers of the Information Age. His inventive spirit and dedication to advancing human communication continue to be recognized and celebrated to this day.

Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne

The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters”.

The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters”.

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Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.

The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.

The sack of Baltimore, with its mixture of opportunism, careful planning and clockwork execution, was typical of the techniques employed in corsair land raids. On 17 June 1631, two vessels sailing out of Algiers—a 300-ton Dutch-built man-of-war, armed with 24 pieces of ordnance and crewed by 200 men, and another vessel of approximately half the size and ordnance—captured a ship from Dartmouth ‘betwixt England and Ireland’. Corsairs used a variety of duplicitous methods to effect the smooth capture of a target ship, including running up the flags of friendly nations, wearing European clothing and hailing crews in their native languages. Aboard their prize was Edward Fawlett and a crew of nine. Having stripped the ship of any useful goods, the attackers scuttled it.
By 19 June the raiders were off the Old Head of Kinsale, where they captured two fishing-boats from Dungarvan, one captained by John Hackett, the other by Thomas Carew, both containing five-man crews. The two twelve-ton boats, now manned by corsairs, joined the little flotilla, which continued westward. Aboard the lead vessel Captain Morat Rais, a Dutch convert to Islam with extensive experience in the North Sea, demanded that Hackett pilot them into Kinsale. Perhaps aware of the presence of the Fifth Lion’s Whelp, under the command of Captain Hooke of the Royal Navy, in the harbour, Hackett allegedly persuaded Rais to continue on to Baltimore.
Baltimore was a familiar harbour to many seamen and had a chequered and controversial history. In 1605 Thomas Crooke purchased a 21-year lease on the town from Sir Fineen O’Driscoll, and set about enticing English settlers to the area. According to a 1608 report from a Spanish ship, most of the native Irish elected not to remain. Crooke is believed to have chosen Baltimore with the specific intention of using it as a supply point for pirates, a charge he was called to answer before the privy council in 1608. Although he was eventually acquitted, the verdict may have been influenced more by a political desire to see an English presence in West Cork than by any genuine belief in Crooke’s innocence. When one considers a contemporary Venetian assertion that Baltimore was one of the two chief nests of English pirates, the charges of piracy against the town gain a measure of credence. By 1631 Baltimore was a small English enclave surrounded by the hostile O’Driscolls. The town relied on the sea and was struggling financially following the death of the energetic and charismatic Crooke.

The film Jaws is released in the United States. It becoming the highest-grossing film of that era.

The University of Oxford receives its Royal charter.

The so-called “hot-line” or “red telephone” is established between the Soviet Union and the United States.