It was achieved by Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian physicist. Critics said long distance radio would never work because of the curvature of the earth - they said that the radio signals would degenerate over 200 miles.

Marconi proved them wrong.

The Morse Code for the letter s was sent from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada, 2000 miles away, on this day.