Morse Code Day: 27 April

Morse Code Day falls on 27 April every year, and Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day on 11 January. The next dates:

The Library of Congress chronology of Morse's papers opens with "1791, Apr. 27: Born, Charlestown, Mass." and closes with his death in New York on 2 April 1872. He was a painter until 1837, when he gave up painting to work on his telegraph. In 1843 Congress voted $30,000 for an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore, and on 24 May 1844 Morse sent its first official message, chosen by Annie Ellsworth, the patent commissioner's daughter: "What hath God wrought." Vail answered from Baltimore with the same words.

• What hath God wrought

  .-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... -189 units · 11.34 s

Played at 20 WPM, it lasts 11.34 seconds in today's International Morse. The 1844 line used the older American Morse, which sends the same words in 10.44 seconds; the American Morse code page plays both. Ships kept Morse for distress calls until 1 February 1999, when the International Maritime Organization's new distress and safety system replaced it. The whole story, from Morse's first telegraph in the 1830s to that last watch at sea, is in the history of Morse code.

Nobody knows. Holiday Insights, a site that documents days like this one, says: "Our research did not find the creator or the origin of Morse Code Day. We did not find out when it was first celebrated." None of the sources behind this page names a founder or a first year, so Morse Code Day is best treated as an informal tradition that grew around Morse's birthday.

Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day was started by the Brownielocks website. Holiday Insights says its owner, Sheila Cicchi of Virginia, created it in 2015. On her own page she explains the aim: "to get people of all ages to try to at least learn their name in Morse Code."

The date marks the first public showing of the telegraph at the Speedwell ironworks in Morristown, but the sources do not agree on the day. Checkiday and Wikipedia give 11 January 1838, and Wikipedia's article on Alfred Vail adds an earlier successful test on 6 January, when the words sent were "A patient waiter is no loser." The site's 1974 National Register nomination, written for the National Park Service, names no day. It says the work was finished "by the middle of January", and that several hundred Morristown citizens then saw a message sent: "railroad cars just arrived 345 passengers", printed in The Jerseyman of 17 January 1838.

Type your name in the box to see its dots and dashes and hear them. SAMUEL, for Samuel Morse, is ... .- -- ..- . .-..: 49 units, or 2.94 seconds at 20 WPM. To wear your name, the bracelet pattern maker turns it into a bead layout with bead counts.

Send a greeting. "Happy Morse Code Day" in Morse code is .... .- .--. .--. -.-- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / -.. .- -.--, 193 units or 11.58 seconds at 20 WPM.

• Happy Morse Code Day

  .... .- .--. .--. -.-- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / -.. .- -.--193 units · 11.58 s

Share a message. Type anything into the Morse code translator, press Play, then use Share to send it as a link, or as a puzzle your friend has to solve by ear.

Hear the famous ones. The 1844 message has its own page, What hath God wrought in Morse code, and the distress call is on SOS in Morse code.

Flash it. The flashlight signaller sends a message with your phone's light or its screen. Screen and on-page flashing is held to 7 WPM, under three flashes a second.

Start learning. The Koch course teaches the code by sound, starting with two letters and adding one at a time, and saves your progress.

Use it in class. Morse bingo has players mark the letters they hear until someone gets five in a row, and the printable worksheets come with an answer key.

Open the Morse code translator, type a name or a greeting, and press Play to hear it, or switch on Light to watch it flash.