World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
Next: May 17, 2027
From Morse code to video calls.
The story
Where it comes from
On 17 May 1865, in the Clock Room of France's Foreign Ministry in Paris, 20 states signed the first International Telegraph Convention and founded the International Telegraph Union, the world's first modern international organisation. Until then, a telegram crossing a border had to be stopped and translated into the next country's system. The treaty set shared rules and tariffs and adopted Morse code. Today's International Telecommunication Union, ITU, has marked the anniversary as World Telecommunication Day since 1969, and in 2006 it merged with World Information Society Day.
How it's celebrated
ITU chooses a theme each year, and governments, regulators, telecoms companies and universities use the day to talk about how the internet and other technologies can improve lives and help close the digital divide. For the rest of us it is a good day to call or message someone in another country, and to notice that it takes seconds.
Did you know
- ITU is the oldest agency in the United Nations family; it became a UN specialised agency in 1949.
- The 1865 treaty set one table of tariffs for cross-border telegrams, priced in French francs, which made them much cheaper to send.
- Charles Kao, born in Shanghai and later at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing that fibres of very pure glass could carry light far enough for telecommunications.
Coming up next
- International Museum Day · May 18, 2027
- World Family Doctor Day · May 19, 2027
- World Fair Play Day · May 19, 2027
- Vesak · May 20, 2027
- World Bee Day · May 20, 2027
- World Metrology Day · May 20, 2027