The first long-distance telegraph message was a line from the Book of Numbers

On 24 May 1844 Samuel Morse tapped out 'What hath God wrought' from the US Capitol to a train station in Baltimore, 44 miles away, the first message sent over Congress's new telegraph line. The Bible verse was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, daughter of the Patent Commissioner. Within a decade telegraph wires crossed most of the eastern United States.

— Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet — Chapter 1, 1998
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