Patent for the Telegraph Granted

Date: June 20, 1840 • Location: Washington, United States

Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer and the namesake of Morse code in 1837 and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.