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Stuxnet — The First Cyber Weapon in History
Discovered in June 2010 by the Belarusian firm VirusBlokAda, Stuxnet is a 500 KB worm exploiting 4 Windows zero-day vulnerabilities to alter the rotational frequency of the Iranian IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz (Iran), driven by Siemens S7 controllers — from 1,064 Hz to 1,410 Hz then down to 2 Hz — while displaying normal data to operators. Result: ~1,000 centrifuges destroyed out of the ~9,000 installed.
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The Electric Telegraph — The First Instant Communication Network
In 1837, Samuel Morse files a caveat (US patent no. 1,647 would not be granted until June 20, 1840) for a single-wire electric telegraph capable of transmitting 10 words per minute at the propagation speed of current (~200,000 km/s in a copper conductor) — for the first time, information outruns the human messenger.
The Telegraph — First Long-Distance Message, Washington to Baltimore
On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse transmits "What hath God wrought" over 61 km of copper wire between the Capitol in Washington and the Baltimore depot — the first long-distance telegraph message, funded by a $30,000 Congressional appropriation.
The Telephone — Bell Transmits the Voice
On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell files patent No. 174,465 for the telephone at the USPTO, only 2 hours before Elisha Gray. On March 10, 1876, he transmits the first intelligible words: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." A year later, the Bell Telephone Company is founded; by 1886, 150,000 subscribers are connected in the United States. Bell's patent would become the most profitable in history: $150,000 initial investment, over one billion dollars in revenue.