Happy Birthday, Samuel Morse!

On this day in 1791, the inventor of the telegraph and the standardized code used to transmit messages (later called Morse code) was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts. A Yale graduate, Morse was also a renown historical style and portrait painter.

The burgeoning field of electricity became a hobby, and began working on the telegraph in 1830s. The first message, sent from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. in 1844, was "What hath God wrought!"

For more information:

"Morse, Samuel Finley Breese." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia 

     University Press, 2015. Credo Reference. Web. 27 Apr 2015.

"Samuel F.B. Morse." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 

     Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.