Famous First Lines

First telegraph message, Samuel Morse, 1844: “What hath God wrought?”

First telephone call, Alexander Graham Bell, 1876: “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.”

First internet message, Charley Kline, 1969: “L-O-G-I-N”

First email message, Ray Tomlinson, 1971: “QWERTYUIOP”

First cell phone call, Martin Cooper, 1973: “Guess who this is, you sorry sonofabitch?”

Source: Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, Networked: The New Social Operating System (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012)