WASHINGTON, May 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
THE FIRST WEB
Profile America - Saturday, May 24th. In a way, today marks the 170th birthday of the World Wide Web. Only it was electro-mechanical, not digital. On this date in 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse activated the first telegraph line, sending a dots-and-dashes code message from the U.S. Capitol building to a receiver in Baltimore. The ability of the telegraph to communicate quickly over long distances of land made it an immediate success. By the late 1850s, the first telegraph cable had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean, and in 1861, the telegraph spanned the continental United States. Over the ensuing decades, the wires wrapped around the world. From the 1844 demonstration, telecommunications today as grown into a $563 billion a year industry, and employs nearly 1.1 million workers. Profile America is in its17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 7692
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_morsecod_1.html
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/2012_econ_advance_report.pdf
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
