5 August 1858: the first transatlantic telegraph cable is completed

On this day in 1858, HMS Agamemnon and the USS Niagara completed the mammoth task of laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable.

HMS Agamemnon (L) and USS Niagara (R) taking aboard cable
HMS Agamemnon (L) and USS Niagara (R) taking aboard cable
(Image credit: © Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

In the summer of 1858, HMS Agamemnon and the USS Niagara met in the middle of the Atlantic.

They joined two ends of telegraph cable together, and then sailed away in opposite directions. In their wake, they each paid out hundreds of miles of cable.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

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