October 1851 -Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant, opened an office in the City of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. Two years earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed.
Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to the whole British press as well as to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. The reputation of its service was enhanced by a succession of reporting scoops. For example, in 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln’s assassination in the United States.As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874.
During both World Wars, Reuters came under pressure from the British government to serve British interests. In 1941 Reuters deflected this pressure by restructuring itself as a private company. The new owners, the British national and provincial press, formed the Reuters Trust, with independent trustees. The Trust preserves Reuters independence and neutrality. The principles of the Trust were maintained and the power to enforce them was strengthened when Reuters became a public company in 1984.
A man cries beside the coffin of his mother, who was killed in Saturday's rocket attack, outside a hospital morgue in Kirkuk, about 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, March 11, 2007. A rocket killed three people and wounded 36 when it hit a bus station in a mostly Kurdish area of the northern city of Kirkuk, a hospital source said. 
The boots and dog tags of U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Alexander S. Arredondo, who was killed on August 25, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq, sit on a casket as people read the names of killed soldiers (L), during an anti-war demonstration in Times Square in New York City March 11, 2007. Sponsored by the group "Granny Peace Brigade NYC" and other anti-war groups, the six-day long demonstration will invite people to read out loud the names of those killed in the war in Iraq as the five-year-anniversary of the U.S. lead invasion of Iraq approaches.
