OCTOBER 24 - Transcontinental Telegraph is Completed

On today's date, October 24 in 1861, the last link in the Transconti -nental telegraph system was completed, and the United States for the first time had instantaneous communication from the east coast to the west. From Washington to California news and communication was for the first time immediate. The world had become a lot smaller by just the clicking of a small device like the one pictured above, the telegraph sounder.

The Need for Coast to Coast Communication

"California and the Pacific Northwest. This ground was rich enough to grow fruits and vegetables in abundance, and lumber was in limitless forests.  And GOLD had been discovered there in 1848." As I wrote in my Blog about the Transcontinental Railroad (1869) and all that went along with it  ( https://historysstory.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-10-trans-continental-railroad-is.html), California had suddenly become very important. In fact it had already become a state in September of 1850. Well, just as the physical commute from the east coast to

California was nearly a killer proposition, getting news and communication was nearly as tough. It took weeks for mail to get through, and the Pony Express, a mail service delivering news, etc. using "young skinny wiry fellows, Orphans preferred, willing to risk death daily" (Poster right) and a series of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California, took ten days. And it only operated from April 3, 1860, to October 1861

"What hath God Wrought.."

This biblical phrase (Numbers, 22:23) "What hath God wrought" was the first message sent on May 24, 1844  on a new device developed by Samuel F.B. Morse (below) and others by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between receiving stations, utilizing a code developed by Morse and thus known as Morse code. This assigned each number, letter or character a unique sequence of short and long signals called

"dots" and "dashes." This new invention revolutionized communication service between cities in the U.S.  Efficient telegraphic stations had been set up throughout the 1840's And 1850 there were lines linked most eastern states, with a similar, separate network of lines linking the booming economy of California. The need to integrate the western state with its federal government and the financial and political centers in the east became self evident.

Funding the Transcontinental Telegraph

The move to set up a transcontinental telegraph line started in 1860 when Congress approved a subsidy of $40,000  to any company that would commit to the construction of a telegraph line which would link the western network with the eastern. The main challenge was to cover the space currently missing any coverage between Salt Lake City and western Missouri. The Western Union Company  took up the challenge. In a way very similar to that which would rule the Transcontinental Railroad a few years later, the work would be done by two teams working to the center from opposite ends.

In charge of the eastern team was Edward Creighton. In charge of the western team was James N. Gamble (right) - yes that Gamble, of the Proctor & Gamble Co. whose beautiful home on Werk Road in Cincinnati was recently demolished for no good reason. The first pole went up on July 4, 1861 and by the project's completion in October of that same year they had planted 27,500 poles holding 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of single-strand iron wire over some very rough country.

Operational Difficulties.....

There were naturally some operational difficulties to be overcome in the construction. There was of course a Civil War raging not far from this area so acts of sabotage were a frequent concern. Also there was a bit of trouble with the indigenous tribes through whose land the poles and wires were being erected. In 1861 some Sioux warriors cut and

removed a section of wire for fashioning bracelets. Later, some of those wearing the bracelets fell ill.  A Sioux medicine man determined the illness was the great spirit of the "talking wire" avenging its desecration.  Thereafter, the Sioux stayed clear of the wire. And of course in the treeless Plains the logs had to be shipped by 200 oxen over the Sierra Nevada mountains, along with wire and glass insulators.  According to Gamble that portion of the job took over a month.

The Completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph

But in spite of the difficulties the line was completed in just four months; a surprise to President Lincoln (and most everyone else) who thought that it would take years. And the total cost came to a half million dollars. In the first  message sent over the new system, Steven J. Field addressed to President Lincoln a message which sought to reassure the President that Transcontinental Telegraph would bind the western states to the Union:

"They (the people of California) believe that it will be the means of strengthening the attachment which bind both the East & West to the Union & they desire in this the first message across the continent to express their loyalty to that Union & their determination to stand by the Government in this its day of trial They regard that Government with affection & will adhere to it under all fortunes.

 Stephen J Field,  Chief Justice of California"



Sources  =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_telegraph

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/western-union-completes-the-first-transcontinental-telegraph-line

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/10/25/1861-first-transcontinental-telegraph-was-sent-to-dc/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-original-wire-the-telegraph-at-150/

https://www.historynet.com/western-union-things-right-west-got-message.htm 

OCTOBER 17 = Al Capone is Convicted of Tax Evasion

On today's date, October 17 in 1931 Al Capone (left) was  convicted of Income Tax Evasion and sentenced to 11 years in Federal Prison. After a lifetime of violence, killing and bloodshed it took the long arm of the Internal Revenue Service to at long last put this ruthless criminal behind bars.

The Rise of "Scarface" Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on January 17, 1899 to  Italian immigrant parents in New York City.  He started the crooked path early, being expelled from school at 14. He joined a street gang and it was in such company that he acquired at age 17 during a fight the facial scar which gave him the nickname which he personally hated. But this kid had a lifetime of crime ahead of him, and his scar was certainly no hindrance. While he was still a teenager he took up with the Five Points Gang and made himself useful as a bouncer in their brothels. In 1920 he moved to Chicago, becoming a trusted lieutenant to Johnny Torrio, the head of a crime syndicate which supplied alcohol which was then illegal under the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1920 this amendment established prohibition as the law of the land. Torrio was nearly killed in an attack by the North Side gang and was sufficiently frightened to retire while he still was alive.  He returned to Italy handing over the reigns of his organization to Capone in 1925.

Capone Goes for Bigger Profits

  Al decided to expand the business, particularly the illegal liquor end of things, and he wasn't shy about using increasingly violent means to do it, effectively going to war with the North Side gang

which had attacked Torrio. Violence increased as did the body count while Capone's men fought it out with North Side thugs and their leaders Dean O'Banion and George "Bugs" Moran (right). At stake was control of the bootleg liquor business and the millions of dollars to be raked in from it and the brothels which they controlled.  Of course Capone was careful to pay off the various politicians, policemen, judges, in particular Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson which protected him from too much law enforcement. Capone became a kind of celebrity and enjoyed every minute of it. He

loved it when the crowds would cheer for him when he showed up at baseball games. He even cultivated a certain Robin Hood image by opening soup kitchens (left) to feed poor men hit by the economic depression which was at its worst. Anybody who could bring relief to the millions left unemployed was certain to be a popular man with the public.

The St. Valentines Day Massacre

But the violence could get to be too much. Capone wanted to wipe out the North Side gang and the influence of its Irish-American leader, "Bugs" Moran once and for all.  On February 14, 1929, seven members of the North Side gang were lured into a garage by several men dressed as Chicago policemen. There the men were lined up against a wall and were shot down in cold blood. It may be that Capone's men thought

that the group they had murdered included Moran himself. But it did not.  In fact, it was Moran himself put the finger squarely on his blood rival by commenting to the press: "Only Al Capone kills like that." Capone had taken the precaution of being out of town at that time. No investigation was able to link the murders into Capone's hands, but he  was widely believed to be the one behind it. His  public image was severely damaged by this brazen murder in broad daylight leading to calls for Government action, while the papers began referring to Al as "Public Enemy No. 1"

The I.R.S. Finally Bags Al 

As Capone's fortune rose, so did the Treasury Department's interest in his income. A ruling by the Supreme Court in May of 1927 worked in the government's favor. In U.S. -v- Sullivan it was determined that “gains from illicit traffic in liquor are subject to the income tax (and) would be taxable” by the government.  Al Capone claimed for years that he had no income which was taxable, so this was exactly what the feds needed to reel in Capone. Led by Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson a group from Treasury known as "the T men" they quietly followed Capone's money and gathered the necessary evidence to show that Capone had made millions off of income for which he had never paid taxes. And on today's date Mr. Capone was convicted on 22 counts of Income Tax Evasion, was sentenced to 11 years in prison was fined $50,000 ($847,111 in today's dollars), charged court costs and ordered to pay back taxes of $215,000 (now, $3,642,576).

Jail is Tough on Al

Capone began serving his sentence in Atlanta, but there were charges that he was allowed too many luxuries there, so his residence was changed to the Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. There, the warden, one James Aloysius Johnston, proved to be a more difficult man to deal with than Capone had dealt with before. There would be none of luxuries that Al had enjoyed before.  As prisoner # AZ-85, Capone occupied a normal cell of 5 ft. by 9 ft., working in  the prison laundry. These surroundings in a claustrophobically small cell in a damp place like Alcatraz is to anyone who has ever toured the place as this writer once did a few years ago, were not conducive to anybody's good health.  At Alcatraz, Capone's body, ravaged by syphilis, began to turn against him leading eventually to insanity. He was released from the Rock after only four years there, and eventually died of a stroke on January 25, 1947 at his home in Palm Island, Florida.

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone

 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/capone-goes-to-prison

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2018/10/17/al-capone-sentenced-to-prison-for-tax-evasion-on-this-day-in-1931/#35da68ae7c4c

https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-should-know-about-al-capone 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Torrio

https://www.history.com/topics/crime/saint-valentines-day-massacre

OCTOBER 4 = The Soviets Launch "Sputnik"

"Our movies and television programs in the fifties were full of the idea of going into space. What came as a surprise was that it was the Soviet Union that launched the first satellite. It is hard to recall the atmosphere of the time."

— John Logsdon, Dir. of Space Policy Institute

On today's date, October 4 in 1957 the Soviet Union (Russia) launched an orbital space satellite, which they called "Sputnik, after the Russian word for "satellite". As one can see from viewing the image of it above, it was a rather odd looking craft that looked something like an octopus extending it's tentacles. But in terms of the Cold War (the period from @ 1946 through the mid 80's when U.S./Soviet relations were at their most tense) it came as a rude  awakening to the American people that the Soviets may have gained an edge over the in the race in the Space Race.

"Sputnik": What & Why?

   "Sputnik" was was the first artificial satellite ever launched into space from earth. Measuring about 58 meters (23 inches) in diameter and weighing 184 lbs. of polished metal with four external antennas which broadcast radio signals back to earth which were strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators all over the world. The information being collected was tracking and studying the density of the upper atmosphere which could be deduced from "Sputnik's drag on earth's orbit, and the effects of its radio signals gave data about the

ionosphere. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit took it to a distance of 584 miles at it's farthest point from earth, 143 miles at its closest. And it took @ 101.5  minutes to orbit the earth. As to why the Russians launched it, well they were looking for a way to show that their system was as advanced as that in the U.S. perhaps more so. So the Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev  (above) gave the program his full backing.

The Space Race

  Many Americans were shocked that the Soviets that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. to the punch in such a public fashion. And they felt very uneasy about having this damned Soviet contraption flying over our skies. Perhaps the satellite could eventually be used to spy or even launch weapons on this country. Eisenhower himself (below)was not

worried about it. Many in his administration dismissed 'Sputnik" as a "useless hunk of iron". But others were more concerned. As David Halberstam wrote in The Fifties, "The success of Sputnik seemed to herald a kind of technological Pearl Harbor, which was exactly what Edward Teller said it was."  Whatever the case, the Russians and the U.S. continued one-upping each other with various "firsts" - until the U.S. wrote the final note on the subject by landing Apollo 11 with Armstrong and Aldrin landing on the moon itself in July 20 of 1969, effectively handing the U.S. the win in the Space Race.

Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sputnik-memo