1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opened in New York City.

1844: Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first telegraphic message over an experimental line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. Morse is best known as the inventor of the telegraph, but he is also esteemed for his contributions to American portraiture. While returning from Europe to assume a position as an arts professor at New York University, Morse began to conceive of a communications system employing the electro-magnet and a series of relays through a network of telegraph stations. In order to transmit messages via this system, he invented Morse Code, an alphabet of electronic dashes and dots used to transmit telegraph messages. (Source: Library of Congress)