1791 Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of orthodox minister Jedediah Morse. He was an artist, creating well-known portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette. Morse also invented the finger-key transmitter for the telegraph and created the Morse code (1836). The first transmission was “What hath God wrought!” on May 24, 1844. An advocate of higher education for women, he founded Vassar College in 1865 and Douglas College in 1871.

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