(1) For the Telegram messaging service, see
Telegram app.
(2) A telegram was a message transmitted over the electronic telegraph system. The first electronic message was sent in Morse code in 1844. However, the first telegram from Western Union, which printed the message at the receiving end and delivered it to the recipient, was sent to President Abraham Lincoln on October 25, 1861, one day after the transcontinental telegraph line was completed. Paid for by the word, at their peak in the 1920s and 1930s, more than 50 million telegrams were delivered every year. Western Union delivered its last message in February 2006. See
telegraph.