Ranked #6 · Thursday, October 29, 2026
Communication firsts by year
The Thursday, October 29, 2026 puzzle: put these five in order, from Oldest at the top to Newest at the bottom.
- Fax machine patentedAlexander Bain, Scotland
- First emailRay Tomlinson, ARPANET
- First phone callAlexander Graham Bell
- First text messageSent from a PC to a phone
- First tweetJack Dorsey
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📠 Fax machine patented1843
Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain patented his fax in 1843, 33 years before Bell's first phone call. Source
☎️ First phone call1876
Bell's notebook recorded "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" just three days after his patent. Source
📧 First email1971
Tomlinson picked the @ symbol to separate user from machine, and the test message was so dull he barely recalled it. Source
💬 First text message1992
The first SMS, "Merry Christmas", was typed on a PC because no handset in 1992 could send texts yet. Source
🐦 First tweet2006
Dorsey's first post, "just setting up my twttr," was written when the service still had no vowels in its name. Source
Years of the first fax patent, phone call, networked email, text message and tweet.
More answers for Thursday, October 29, 2026: Rewind #5: Planes, a street jammed with trucks and a rocket on the pad