Samuel Morse

Travels to England to study painting at the Royal Academy. He paints large historical canvases and wins a gold medal for a sculpture. He returns to America expecting acclaim. Portrait commissions pay the bills instead.

Receives a letter in Washington telling him his wife Lucretia is gravely ill back in New Haven. By the time the letter arrives, she's already dead and buried. He never gets to say goodbye. The slowness of communication haunts him.

Demonstrates the telegraph for the first time at the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey. He sends a signal through ten miles of wire. The audience includes businessmen, scientists, and skeptics. The signal works.

Sends the first official telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Baltimore: "What hath God wrought." The phrase is from the Book of Numbers. His assistant Annie Ellsworth chose it. The message travels 38 miles in an instant.

Dies at his home in New York City at 80. By then, telegraph wires span continents and cross oceans. He spent his last years wealthy and honored, though patent lawsuits consumed decades of his career. He'd started as a painter who wanted to be remembered for his art.