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Today in History, August 5th

On August 5, 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was completed. Plus the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and Reagan firing air traffic controllers.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published August 5, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

August 5 is best known for 1858, when crews finished laying the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. The date also saw the U.S., Soviet Union and Britain sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and President Reagan fire more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

The big story: The first transatlantic telegraph cable is finished (1858)

By the 1850s, a telegraph message could cross the United States in moments, but news between America and Europe still moved at the speed of a ship. Cyrus West Field, an American merchant, set out in 1854 to change that by running an insulated cable along the floor of the Atlantic. It took persistence. Four attempts starting in 1857 ended in failure. On the fifth try, in the summer of 1858, four ships met in mid-ocean and steamed in opposite directions, two toward Newfoundland and two toward Ireland. On August 5, 1858, the cable was in place, nearly 2,000 miles long and often more than two miles down. President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria traded polite greetings over it on August 16. The triumph was short. The signal was weak, and the cable went dead by early September. Field raised fresh money, and in 1866 the giant ship Great Eastern laid a permanent line.

More events on August 5

Year	What happened
1861	President Abraham Lincoln and Congress introduced the first federal income tax.
1864	Union Admiral David Farragut won the Battle of Mobile Bay, closing the Alabama port of Mobile to Confederate blockade runners.
1914	The first electric traffic signal, with red and green lights, went up in Cleveland, Ohio.
1914	German troops attacked the Belgian city of Liège, opening the first battle of World War I.
1926	Escape artist Harry Houdini spent 91 minutes sealed in an airtight coffin underwater, setting an endurance record meant to top a rival magician.
1948	Diver Sammy Lee won Olympic gold in London. He and Vicki Draves, who had won her own diving gold two days earlier, became the first Asian American Olympic gold medalists.
1957	Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, with dancing teens and lip-synced songs, began airing nationally.
1960	Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, declared independence, ending more than 60 years of French rule.
1963	The U.S., the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Moscow.
1981	President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.
2010	A mine collapse in Chile’s Atacama Desert trapped 33 workers, beginning a rescue that took 69 days.
2024	Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid mass protests. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was soon named interim leader.

Born on August 5

1802: Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician who helped found several branches of modern math.
1930: Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon, born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
1962: Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-born basketball star of the New York Knicks and later a coach.