In the early forties of the 20th century, Western Union has used the first time a commercial intercity microwave transmission system. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. 1970 - a new service called Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. In 1884 Western Union has become a joint-stock company and was brought to the stock exchange. The company has entered in the first American stock index Dow Jones. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.