In May 1844 Morse sent the first telegram from Washington to Baltimore; ten days later the last pair of great auks was killed in Iceland.
The events
- Morse telegraph line1844 · Washington. On 24 May 1844 Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" from the US Capitol to Baltimore. The electric telegraph let news travel faster than any messenger for the first time and soon wired whole continents together.
- Last great auks killed1844 · Eldey, Iceland. On 3 June 1844 fishermen on the Eldey stack off Iceland killed the last confirmed pair of great auks for a dealer, crushing their egg. The rarer the flightless bird became, the more collectors paid for its skins and eggs.
More amazing facts
- 1835 · 1859 Darwin spent five weeks on the Galápagos in 1835, but did not publish On the Origin of Species until 24 years later.
- 1850 · 1861 China's Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) overlapped with the American Civil War and cost an estimated 20–30 million lives — many times more.
- 1859 · 1869 Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Mendeleev's periodic law (1869) are just ten years apart.
- 1861 Alexander II signed the manifesto freeing the serfs on 3 March 1861 (19 February Old Style); the very next day Lincoln became US president.
- 1861 1861: Russia abolished serfdom, and a united Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in Turin.
- 1861 · 1888 Russia abolished serfdom in 1861 and the USA slavery in 1865; Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, only in 1888.