A Sunday with markets closed but a full week of financial and tech news to digest — and, in world history, the anniversary of one of the earliest moments of instant global communication.
On this day
1858Queen Victoria sent the first official transatlantic telegram to US President James Buchanan over the newly laid Atlantic cable. The 98-word message took 16.5 hours to transmit; a reply by ship would have taken about twelve days.The Bureau of Engraving and Printing via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
1960Cyprus became independent from British colonial rule under the Zurich and London agreements, with Archbishop Makarios III as its first president and Fazil Kucuk as vice-president.Роман Курносенко via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
1946IndiaThe Muslim League's Direct Action Day call for a general strike triggered four days of communal violence in Calcutta, killing thousands and hardening the political path toward Partition the following year.Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Did you know
India is the world's largest milk producer, at roughly 248 million tonnes a year — about 23% of global output, more than the entire European Union's production and well over double the United States'.