On This Day in American History — Oct 24: Transcontinental Telegraph Completed, Annie Taylor Goes Over Niagara

Host 1: good morning welcome to on this day in American history today is Saturday October 24th 2026 so welcome to the deep dive today we're looking at three big round anniversaries really focusing on Americans just you know completely pushing boundaries

Host 2: yeah pushing the limits for sure we're talking about shrinking the continent surviving the sheer force of nature and even looking back at ourselves from from space

Host 1: Right so let's start with start with that first one it's 1861 which is the 165th anniversary of Western Union finishing the transcontinental telegraph out at Salt at Salt Lake City.

Host 2: Yeah Yeah, and it's wild how they even did it. I mean, they had a $40,000 subsidy from Congress, which was huge, but they had to use oxen to haul materials. They even shipped wire all the way around Cape Horn.

Host 1: just to get it to California.

Host 2: Yeah.

Host 1: I mean, it's basically the 1860s equivalent equivalent of getting a high speed Internet in a total dead zone.

Host 2: Oh, absolutely. Because before this, the Pony Express was your only option and that was agonizingly slow.

Host 1: Right. So it's instantly replaced. And there's this great vivid detail where Chief Justice Stephen J. Field sends a message to President Lincoln but if you look at the sources there's actually a pretty funny dispute about it

Host 2: Yeah the facts are a little messy the National Park Service says the message was sent from from Sacramento on the evening of the 24th and Lincoln got it the next morning morning

Host 1: but then Washingtonian magazine dates at the 25th

Host 2: right and then some local TV station claims it was sent from San Francisco but you know the exact time doesn't matter as much as the context

Host 3: which was what exactly

Host 2: he was telling Lincoln that California was staying loyal I mean this instant communication helped keep California in the Union during the Civil War

Host 3: Wow. Okay. So moving from shrinking the the continent with wires to just fully testing the physical limits of human survival, let's talk about 1901.

Host 2: Oh, the 125th anniversary of Annie Edson Taylor.

Host 1: Yes. A 63 year old widow who was broke and she decides to go over the 170 foot drop of Niagara Falls in a custom pressurized pickle barrel.

Host 2: Plugged with a a cork. It's just incredible. She even brought a little lucky heart shaped pillow in there with her

Host 1: I mean I have to ask is this basically the 1901 version version of doing a highly dangerous viral stunt just for clout like why do it

Host 2: It totally sounds like it right but it was actually an early lesson on the price of celebrity she was seeking her fortune she emerged and warned everyone saying no one ought ever do that do that again

Host 3: and didn't the Boston Journal completely mess up her story? Calling her 50 and hysterical?

Host 2: Yeah, 50 and hysterical. And And the sad part is well she actually died poor poor anyway.

Host 3: Wait really after all that?

Host 2: Yeah but but she spawned a whole wave of copycats I think 10 out of of 15 survived until the whole stunt was finally outlawed

Host 1: Wow well if plummeting 170 feet isn't high enough how about shooting 65 miles straight up because 80 years ago today in 1946 we got the first photo of Earth from space

Host 2: Yeah at White Sands and this wasn't some polished space program scientists literally just launched a captured German V2 rocket

Host 1: with a 35 millimeter camera just strapped to it right and the thing smashed all the way back down to Earth

Host 1: Earth

Host 2: exactly but the film was saved because they put it it in a steel cassette

Host 1: oh oh smart

Host 2: yeah and a and a 19 year old on the recovery team Fred Raleigh actually remembered seeing these serious scientists jumping up and down like kids when they found it

Host 1: that is amazing but I love the ironic detail that the scientists actually considered the clouds in the picture to be a nuisance

Host 2: right they just wanted a clear shot of the ground but you know that photo predated Earthrise and it basically birthed modern weather forecasting and climate science

Host 1: incredible well real quick before we go also on this day 1929's Black Thursday stock market crash

Host 2: oh right

Host 1: yeah and 1931's early dedication of the George Washington Bridge by FDR plus the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis naval quarantine

Host 2: a very heavy day in history

Host 2: it leaves you pondering though what wild boundary are we pushing today that people a century from now will look back on as our you know pickle barrel moment

Host 1: Thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow