First Transatlantic Telegraph Message
Next: August 16, 2027
Ninety-eight words across an ocean.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks 16 August 1858, when Queen Victoria's message to the United States President, James Buchanan, crossed the Atlantic on the first telegraph cable laid along the ocean floor, from Valentia in Ireland to Newfoundland. Her 98 words of congratulation, hoping the cable would prove 'an additional link between the nations', took about 16 and a half hours to send. The President's reply took about ten. Until then, news between Europe and America crossed by ship, which could take ten days or more.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but the day is remembered by museums and historians of communication. In 1858 it set off wild celebrations: New York held a parade and fireworks, which accidentally set the dome of City Hall alight, and the jeweller Tiffany & Co. cut leftover cable into short souvenir pieces. Today it is a good day to think about how quickly a message now reaches the other side of the world.
Did you know
- The cable was fragile and failed within weeks, after about 732 messages; a lasting transatlantic line followed in 1866.
- So much cable was needed that no single ship could carry it, and the load was split between HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara.
- The galvanometer that received the Queen's message is now kept by The Henry Ford, a museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
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