On July 21, 1858, the NY Times reported on the failure of the second attempt to lay the transatlantic cable. I don’t know if its the first or not.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C0CE4D81331EE34BC4951DFB1668383649FDE
Shorter cables were laid first of course. Meanwhile efforts to bridge the area from New Foundland to Ireland were rough going.
A lot of this was going on while the US was having a Civil War. It took a while but they pretty much got the world linked up by undersea cable. They were still laying them in the 1950’s, heck maybe still do.
Five attempts to lay it were made over a nine-year period - in 1857, two in 1858, in 1865, and in 1866 - before lasting connections were finally achieved by the SS Great Eastern captained by Sir James Anderson with the 1866 cable and the repaired 1865 cable. Additional cables were laid between Foilhommerum and Heart's Content in 1873, 1874, 1880 and 1894. By the end of the 19th century, British-, French-, German- and American-owned cables linked Europe and North America in a sophisticated web of telegraphic communications.On August 16 (1858?), the first message sent across the cable was, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace and good will toward men." Then Queen Victoria sent a telegram of congratulation to President James Buchanan through the line, and expressed a hope that it would prove "an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem." The President responded that, "it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world."
Humans are awesome.