Western Union

The Western Union Company is an American financial services and communications company. Its North American headquarters is in Meridian, Colorado, though the postal designation of nearby Englewood is used in its mailing address. Up until it discontinued the service in 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S. company in the business of exchanging telegrams.

Western Union has several divisions, with products such as person-to-person money transfer, money orders, business payments and commercial services. They offered standard "Cablegrams", as well as more cheerful products such as Candygrams, Dollygrams, and Melodygrams.

Western Union, as an industrialized monopoly, dominated the telegraph industry in the late 19th century. It was the first communications empire and set a pattern for American-style communications businesses as they are known today.

History

19th century

In 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was organized in Rochester, New York by Samuel L. Selden, Hiram Sibley, and others, with the goal of creating one great telegraph system with unified and efficient operations. Meanwhile, Ezra Cornell had bought back one of his bankrupt companies and renamed it the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Originally fierce competitors, by 1856 both groups were finally convinced that consolidation was their only alternative for progress. The merged company was named the Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell's insistence, and Western Union was born.

Union

Union is the state of being united or joined.

Union may also refer to:

Labor

Education

History and politics

Fast

Fast may refer to:

Art, entertainment, and media

Films

Publications

Music

Banking

Companies and products

Computing and software

Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a Class I line haul freight railroad that operates nearly 8,500 locomotives over 32,000 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and is serviced by more than 47,000 employees.

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western).

Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.

Matt Dunning

Matt Dunning (born 19 December 1978) is a former Australian rugby union footballer. He played as a prop for the Waratahs and Western Force in Super Rugby, and represented Australia. He is the current coach of the Balmain rugby club in Sydney.

Early life

Dunning was born in Calgary, Canada, but grew up in Sydney and was educated at Northholm Grammar School. In 1996, he was selected to represent New South Wales at the Australian Schools Rugby Championships. He went on to play for Australian Schools, U19s and U21s. His brother is Canadian prop Casey Dunning.

Rugby career

Dunning made his debut for the New South Wales Waratahs in a Ricoh Championship match against Queensland in 2000, and played his first Super 14 match against the Chiefs in 2001. He made his international test debut on 25 October 2003 during the 2003 Rugby World Cup at the age of 24. The match against Namibia was won 142-0 and is the largest winning margin for an Australian side. The only other match he played in during the tournament was the 17-20 loss against England in the final. He is also well known for his drop goal in the 2003 Super 12 season. His team, the NSW Waratahs, needed a bonus point to make the finals. Since the Waratahs were playing with advantage, and still needed two more tries to gain the bonus point, Dunning decided to kick a drop goal, which he assumed would miss. This would result in the penalty being awarded, which would allow the ball to be kicked into touch and possibly a line-out drive that could lead to a try. Unfortunately, the kick hit its mark and sailed through the posts, much to his and his teammates' dismay.