Milestones In Communications
The capabilities of modern communications would utterly astound our ancestors. Did you ever stop to think that it took five months for Queen Isabella to hear of Columbus discovery, or that it took two weeks for Europe to learn of Lincolns assassination
We take for granted immediate news of everything that is going on in the world, but it was not always so. Modern technology and future predictions are easier to comprehend when we view them in terms of our past. What follows next is a list of what we consider some of the more significant events in the annals of communication. Our list is arbitrary and includes items chosen not only for technological innovation, but for creativity and human interest as well.
The Battle of Marathon ?o Pheidippides Run
For centuries, the speed of communication was, in essence, the speed of transportation. Perhaps no event so dramatizes this limitation as Pheidippides run following the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
As told in the history books, a badly outnumbered Greek force defeated an invading Persian army on the plains of Marathon, 20 miles from Athens. Fearing that the defeated Persians would regroup and attack Athens and that the city would surrender without knowing
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