NOTE TO EDITORS:

Kevin Aylward, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, invites the media to the opening reception celebrating Signal Hill National Historic Site as a Receiving the World communications site. As one of 10 communications sites to open as part of the Receiving the World Celebrations, the Signal Hill site has enhanced its communications exhibits and interpretation programs. The opening reception will take place at 2:00 p.m., Friday, July 6, in the Signal Hill National Historic Site Interpretation Centre on Signal Hill, St. John�s, Newfoundland.

Signal Hill is a massive sandstone promontory that shields St. John�s harbour from the frequent fury of the North Atlantic. Over the centuries, soldiers and sailors, anxious merchants, fishermen�s families and awe-struck visitors have all sought its summit for a view of the wide ocean beyond and a hint of the news it might bring.

Late in 1901, the young Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi took to Signal Hill�s windy crest with a mission. He was armed with a kite, a wire antenna, crude receiving equipment and an unswerving belief that wireless signals could span the Atlantic. Listening intently on December 12, he picked up "dot, dot, dot" � the Morse code signal for the letter "S" sent from Poldhu, England, more than 2,000 kilometres across the sea.

Marconi�s success is one of several signal events that occurred at this landmark, now a national historic site. Signal Hill�s past even includes signal guns and signal flags. But the faint sounds Marconi heard there in 1901 made the loudest noise on the world stage. His achievement proved that radio waves did follow the curvature of the earth. That, in turn, changed the course of communications history forever, and marks Signal Hill as the place where the potential of wireless was first proven.

Media contact: Mary MacNab, Communications, Receiving the World Celebrations, (709) 729-3813.

2001 07 04                                                         3:35 p.m.