75th Anniversary of Wireless Communications Statement by the President.

Seventy-five years ago, a new era of international communications was heralded in by a historic exchange of messages across the Atlantic. On January 18, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt first used the Marconi wireless to send the following message to Edward VII of England from a station on Cape Cod:

"In taking advantage of the wonderful triumph of scientific research and ingenuity which has been achieved in perfecting a system of wireless telegraphy, I extend on behalf of the American people most cordial greetings and good wishes to you and [to all] the people of the British Empire."

Edward VII replied via the Poldhu Station in Cornwall, England:

"I thank you most sincerely for the kind message which I have just received from you through Marconi's transatlantic wireless telegraphy. I sincerely reciprocate in the name of the people of the British Empire the cordial greetings and friendly sentiment expressed by you on behalf of the American nation, and I heartily wish you and your country every possible prosperity."

That exchange marked a milestone in the history of communications. Since then, we have built on the invention of the distinguished Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi and others, a global communications system that allows instant contact not only between heads of state but peoples of all nations.

In recalling that historic message, it is fitting that we commemorate the event both with gratitude for the ways in which science and engineering have helped to unite us and with fervent hopes that such communications will serve the future course of peace and human progress everywhere.