On This Day

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.

On This Day in Telephone History April 4TH 1877 The First Home Telephone Line connected the workshop of Charles Williams, Jr., located at 109 Court Street in Boston, to his house in Somerville, Massachusetts. The telephones became No. 1 and 2 in the Bell Telephone Company.

On This Day in Telephone History April 3RD 1877 the First Telephone Conversation between Boston and New York took place. Thomas Watson was in Boston and Alexander Graham Bell was in NYC. Over a borrowed telegraph line, the two telephone pioneers reported a successful but extremely difficult test.

On This Day in Telephone History April 3RD 1973 The First Handheld Mobile Phone Call was placed by Marty Cooper on a DynaTac 8000x The call was to Bell Labs’ Head of Research, Joel Engel. 10 years later, the DynaTac 8000x would become the first such phone to be commercially released.