So I find myself a little curious now, what is the academic consensus on this issue? I found a Wikipedia article that dismisses such theories as fringe but I’m wary to just accept this since it squares with my existing belief. And like, all things being equal, it’s not that far out to imagine other societies also developed sufficient navies to cross oceans. There are example of other discoveries that were indeed independently discovered, after all.

Edit: added wiki link. Edit: changed wording a little but nothing crazy.

One final edit: I’d like to clarify this post doesn’t pertain to Columbus himself “discovering” America first, but rather the potential of other societies to cross the ocean to arrive at America and possibly come back, predating the euro-Columbian era.

1. "It was more work/more disruptive for the operator to use punctuation than words."
   To me this seems incorrect when you realize that the American Morse code for a period was ". . - - . ." and the code for "stop" would have been ". . . - - - . . . ." one requires more physical effort and concentration than the other.

2. Taken directly from the nbc https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11147506, " People would save money by using the word “stop” instead of periods to end sentences because punctuation was extra while the four character word was free."
   This also seems false, though in a less obvious way. For Western Union telegrams rates were somewhat fixed. Telegrams that were 10 words or less were all charged the same, with rate changes based on distance and office location. Any word over that 10 was then charged extra based on the office and distance. While there was seemingly never any hard company rules about how to count punctuation for charging telegrams (in the 1866, 1870, and 1884 Western Union company rulebooks.) The 1884 Western Union rulebook provides a useful example where it states that the figure "44.42" should be counted as 5 words. Meaning every numeral and the "." is counted as a word, the same way "stop" would be. Therefore, so long as you used the "." within your ten words it would be just as "free" as using the word "stop."

3. "Because the telegraph lacked the ability to use punctuation" or "punctuation code was not invented yet."
   As I have already demonstrated in point 1, this is not true, there was code for punctuation. But, it did get me thinking, when was the code for punctuation introduced into American Morse code? Punctuation was not present in Morse's first patent for his code and telegraph in 1840. The full text of his patent only mentions letters and numerals https://patents.google.com/patent/US1647A/en . Sadly, this is where my research got stonewalled. I could not find a complete and accurate history of the evolution of American Morse code that included any mention of the addition of punctuation past Morse's original patent. However, I am quite sure that for most of the telegraph's history punctuation was an option. I have a telegraph textbook from 1883 that includes code for punctuation, the book "The Telegraph in America" from 1879 also includes code for punctuation, and a Canadian telegram from 1847 has what to me looks like a period at the end of the first line. I also think what looks like the capitalization of the "S" in "She" at the beginning of the second line also supports my reading (https://tinyurl.com/mthwdcax).

4. "Because during WW1 governments and militaries wanted greater clarity and security in sending, so they used STOP instead of periods to avoid ambiguity."
   I don't know where exactly the originator of this is from, but again this explanation kind of admits that code for punctuation had already existed. I find a lot of people citing a booklet "How to Write Telegrams Properly" from 1928, and it is the earliest example I've found for this explanation's origins. I haven't found any sources making similar claims. Still, this explanation does not make sense to me. The code for STOP (". . . - - - . . . .") is just as likely to be misinterpreted as the code for a period, if not more so as the American Morse code for "O" was a confusing "- -" essentially two dashes with a space between them that's smaller than the space between words. Giving this explanation the benefit of the doubt, let's say militaries preferred having STOP written out because it was harder to miss than a period? That still leaves the question of how and why it would be adopted popularly by people after the war.

In short, I don't know what the origins of using STOP is for telegrams. I think it's likely a form of telegraphese that originally spread through popular culture and public ignorance about the telegraph after wider use of the technology in the 1920s and 30s and it did not come from the telegraph industry. Or, it could have come from the telegraph industry with the introduction of new printing telegraph machines in the early twentieth-century and perhaps they had a technical limitation requiring the use of STOP which previous Morse telegrams that were typed or handwritten did not need to do. However, I cannot find sources to strongly support either claim. It does seem to me like the origin of STOP is from the twentieth-century, post-WW1 specifically, and not from the nineteenth-century, though I'm open to being proven wrong.

If any military historian knows anything about the use of the word STOP in war telegrams and has any evidence to point towards its use in confidential or government business I'd be interested to see it. If any other historians know of STOP's wider use in telegrams or think I may have made a mistake or error in my assessments of these common explanations I'd be happy to hear them out. I would prefer sources for any answers provided if possible. Thank you very much.

One of my most fulfilling educational experiences was studying US postwar history at high school. Here’s the curriculum I followed. I’m not quite sure why - maybe the crossover between culture and politics, or just the fact that it’s now imbedded in Western culture - but I found it fascinating.

After watching Apollo 11 (2019) recently, my interest has been rekindled. I’m interested in a broad range of topics, including presidents, political events (Watergate, McCarthyism), Vietnam, race relations, popular culture (Hollywood, sports, mass media),... Anything that might convey the particular character of the time to a non-American. The sweet spot is probably between academic and popular histories, but I’d consider either if itcame recommended!

Thanks in advance.

Video in question: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRyLrKwE/?k=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oesho#/media/File:CoinOfHuvishkaWithOisho.JPG