1859 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

Telegraphy promoter Samuel F. B. Morse agrees to the formation of the North American Telegraph Association as a near-monopoly (see 1844). His onetime partner Alfred Vail has died in poverty at his native Morristown, New Jersey January 18 at age 51 (see Western Union, 1856; 1866).

The Irish Times begins publication March 29 at 4 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. Founded by Lawrence Knox, 23, it appears Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays until June 8, when it becomes a daily, and within a few months has a circulation of 8,000; Know will own the paper until his death in 1873, by the turn of the century it will have the largest circulation of any paper in Ireland, and it will continue into the 21st century, long outliving the other four papers launched this year at Dublin.

German painter and poet Wilhelm Busch, 27, pioneers the modern comic strip with comic sketches for the comic weekly Fliegende Blätter that will soon include Max und Moritz," "Der heilige Antonius von Padua," Die fromme Helene," "Hans Huckebein," "Dideldum!," and "Herr und Frau Knopp."

Rocky Mountain News begins publication during a snowstorm April 23 at Cherry Creek in what will soon be Montana Territory (see politics, 1864). Ohio-born surveyor William H. (Newton) Byers, 28, has arrived 3 days earlier from Omaha with Thomas Gibson, printer John L. Dailey, and wagonload of supplies that included a used printing press, ink, various printing supplies, and type set for the four-page paper's two inside pages. Beating out rival John Merrick by 20 minutes to produce the town's first paper, Byers will use butcher paper, wrapping paper, and anything else he can find before securing a reliable source of newsprint and will remain publisher and editor until 1879, championing the cause of Colorado, encouraging agriculture, and financing a railroad despite bribery, death threats, floods, and kidnapping.

Peking Syllabary by London-born diplomat Thomas F. (Francis) Wade, 41, offers a romanization of Chinese ideographs. Sent to China by the British Army in 1842, Wade studied the language and became an official interpreter (see Giles, 1872).