  WE trace the beginning of symbolic dynamics--the study of the shift dynamical
system--as it arose from the use of coding to study recurrence and transitivity
properties of geodesics. The normal citations for the first appearance of
symbolic dynamics, Hadamard's 1898 paper and the 1938 and 1940 papers of Morse
and Hedlund, don't truly represent the abstract point of view associated with
the subject today. Based in part on the evidence of a 1941 letter from Hedlund
to Morse, we place the beginning of symbolic dynamics in a 1944 paper by
Hedlund.
