On This Day

On This Day in Telephone History April 13TH 1951, the FCC approved AT&T’s acquisition of Western Union’s Pacific region telephone business and Western Union’s acquisition of AT&T’s Pacific region telegram business.

On This Day in Telephone History April 12, 1954, the First Transistorized Telephone Repeater was put into operation at Americus, Georgia. The telephone repeater included transistor amplifiers made on printed circuit boards, which was also a first of this technique on Bell telephone lines. Amplifier elements such as transistors, condensers, and resistors are mounted on … Read more

On This Day in Telephone History April 11TH 1921 Opening of the First Havana-Key West Deep Sea Cable. The program included talks from Havana to Santa Catalina Island, 5,500 miles away.

On This Day in Telephone History April 10TH 1881, an Experimental Telephone Conversation over a Western Union Telegraph Wire transpired. The connection was between Bangor, Maine, USA and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, a distance of 214 miles.

On This Day in Telephone History April 9TH 1930 The First Demonstration of Two-way Television over Telephone Wires between telephones at 195 Broadway and 463 West Street, New York City. An experimental service had been in operation for some time previous to this demonstration.

On This Day in Telephone History April 8TH 1939, WEather 6-1212, the New York weather forecast service, was inaugurated. This was the first such service in United States. The service was provided by AT&T’s NYC West Side Telephone Information Office at 435 West Fiftieth Street. Each hour, one of thirty women made a record containing … Read more

On This Day in Telephone History April 7TH 1885 Granville Woods was Issued US Patent 315,368 for the Telegraphony “Telegraphony” was a combination of a telephone and telegraph and allowed telegraph stations to send voice as well as telegraph messages over a single wire. The Telegraphony enabled inexperienced telegraph operators to send messages. The Bell … Read more

On This Day in Telephone History April 7TH 1927 First American Television Demonstration. The image and voice of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington, D.C., to New York City, New York, U.S., in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. Several newspaper reporters and officials of Bell Telephone Laboratories gathered … Read more

On This Day in Telephone History April 6TH 1965 – The First Commercial Communications Satellite, Early Bird, was launched into orbit from Cape Kennedy. The 85-pound satellite was of the synchronous type, matching the earth’s rotation to hover over the same spot all the time.

On This Day in Telephone History April 5TH 1877 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his new device called a Telephone at Music Hall, Providence, RI, using circuit from Boston for demonstration.