As the world enjoys news from the London Olympics, let's take a look at when news from Europe jumped from taking weeks to cross the Atlantic to taking minutes.
A transatlantic telegraph cable had been put in place in 1858, but it soon failed. The Civil War delayed another attempt by the man trying to lay the cable, Cyrus Field, and in the summer of 1866 a successful cable was finally placed beneath the Atlantic. Telegraph operators on the west coast of Ireland could communicate with their counterparts on the east coast of Canada. And news could thus be relayed from London to New York.
- New York Tribune, July 30, 1866: Horace Greeley's newspaper celebrated the news with large headlines and a front-page map showing the cable's position.
- Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, July 30, 1866: In Philadelphia the "Girdle Around the Earth" was hailed as "The Wonder of the Age."
- New York Tribune, August 2, 1866: With news flowing between America and Europe, people in San Francisco were said to be celebrating.
- The Montana Post, August 11, 1866: The text of congratulatory messages passed between Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson appeared in a newspaper in the Montana territory.
- New York Tribune, August 13, 1866: As a new era in journalism began, current news from Europe was appearing on the front pages of American newspapers.
Note: The links above lead to excerpts at the Chronicling America site of the Library of Congress. On those pages, use the "persistent link" to view the entire page of the newspaper.
Illustration: Cyrus Field, creator of the transatlantic telegraph cable/New York Public Library Digital Images
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