May 24 Birthday
On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message from the Supreme Court chamber in Washington, DC, to his assistant Alfred Vail in Baltimore. The message — "What hath God wrought!" — was suggested by a young girl, Annie Ellsworth, whose father was a patent commissioner. Morse tapped the words in dots and dashes that Vail decoded thirty miles away. The message was from the Book of Numbers. The telegraph shrank time. Before it, information traveled at the speed of a horse or a ship. After it, information traveled at the speed of light. The first news transmitted by telegraph was the nomination of James K. Polk for president — the news reached Washington before the physical letter carrying the same information. The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24, 1883. It connected Manhattan and Brooklyn, which was then an independent city. The bridge took fourteen years to build and cost $15 million. Its designer, John Roebling, died of tetanus after his foot was crushed during a survey — he had insisted on inspecting the site himself. His son Washington took over, but developed decompression sickness from working in the caissons and was bedridden for the rest of the construction. His wife Emily carried instructions to the site and effectively managed the project. On opening day, 150,000 people crossed. Six days later, a rumor that the bridge was collapsing caused a stampede that killed twelve people. P.T. Barnum marched twenty-one elephants across the bridge to prove it was safe. Bob Dylan, born this day in 1941 as Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota, arrived in New York in 1961 with a guitar and a borrowed harmonica holder. He played in folk clubs and was signed by Columbia Records. "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) became an anthem of the civil rights and antiwar movements. When he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, fans booed. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 — the first songwriter to receive it. People born on May 24 fall under the zodiac sign of Gemini. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 24 include 1844: Samuel Morse sends first telegraph message ("What hath God wrought!"), 1883: Brooklyn Bridge opens after 14 years of construction, 1976: Concorde begins first commercial supersonic flights to Washington and Dallas. Famous people born on May 24 include Queen Victoria (1819), Bob Dylan (1941), John C. Reilly (1965).