Landscape: George Wolfe

 George Wolfe (British, 1834-1890), 'July in Leigh Woods'. From the "Tree of Life" Facebook group.  

Copied under fair use principles. 

Anniversary of the First Transcontinental Telegraph

 Another anniversary!!  🙂 I looked up some of the history of the telegraph. English and Russian inventors developed early versions in the 1830s. Samuel F. B. Morse developed his namesake Morse Code and in 1844 sent the first message, "What hath God wrought?" (which, I learned, is from Numbers 23:23, meaning "Look what God has done!"). I read somewhere that the telegraph was important on a limited basis in the Mexican War. THEN, 164 years ago today, October 24, 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company linked the eastern and western telegraph networks of the U.S. at Salt Lake City. Thus, they completed the first transcontinental line in the U.S. President Lincoln received the first telegraph message on this unified system. As this article discusses, Lincoln not only used the technology for the war effort but often stayed in the telegraph room during crucial times. There is a great scene in the 'Lincoln" movie where Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) starts quizzing the two young telegraph operators (played by Adam Driver and Drew Sease) about Euclid, and they're like, "What's he talking about? This is awkward" LOL.)

https://www.history.com/articles/abraham-lincoln-telegraph-civil-war?fbclid=IwY2xjawNonhVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjCKGFcnNxnexL1X_armBmTIxlc1ux67q3wc6DiXkQcFaW3J52rBB4Ayqv_r_aem_VA0hr4WWroH7ROd-J8OoVA

Also: 

https://www.usnews.com/news/history/articles/2009/02/11/abraham-lincoln-a-technology-leader-of-his-time?fbclid=IwY2xjawNooNJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuqmGqP2g_ieWQ_wQWADJWVX2tRKRn6YnqyEN5IP3JXaOn8M0P13pDE1L8m3_aem_kfkccdEWbFeymk6wlyqwxg

My First Published Article

42 years ago this month, I had my first article published, woot! It was a piece about my hometown. It appeared in the Nov.-Dec. 1983 issue of Illinois Magazine (which at the time was a new incarnation of the old Outdoor Illinois). That issue had a pretty cover. Friend-prolific author-activist John J. Dunphy of Alton's Second Reading Book Shop had an article in the issue, too! (I didn't know him then.) As he would joke, with so much writing talent in one issue, a copy should be an expensive collector's item, LOL. My writing style has improved, I hope.

Tragic Anniversary

Forty years ago yesterday, American tourist Leon Klinghoffer was shot, killed, and thrown overboard from the cruise ship Achille Lauro, by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front who had hijacked the ship. Klinghoffer was Jewish and used a wheelchair. He was the only passenger to be killed. His body was recovered and buried in New Jersey; his wife died a few months later of cancer. The hostage takers were apprehended in Italy and tried and convicted there. Composer John Adams wrote an opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer", which premiered in 1991 and was staged by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2011.