| In this article we're going to discuss the | | | | announced plans to build the first 911 system |
| people responsible for what is now our | | | | in Huntington, Indiana. The President of |
| emergency call system known as 911. | | | | Alabama Telephone, a man by the name of Bob |
| | | | Gallagher, was annoyed that the independent |
| Actually, the first system in being to dial | | | | phone industry had not been informed of this |
| in case of emergency was used in Great | | | | decision and consulted as to their thoughts |
| Britain in 1937. In Great Britain the | | | | so he decided to get the jump on AT&T and |
| citizens there could dial 999 to either call | | | | built the first emergency service in |
| for the police, medical assistance or the | | | | Haleyville, Alabama. |
| fire department in case of fire. This could | | | | |
| be done from anywhere in the country by | | | | Gallagher got together with his state inside |
| anyone owning or leasing a standard | | | | plant manager, Bob Fitzgerald, who told |
| telephone. No special equipment was needed. | | | | Gallagher that he could go ahead with his |
| It wasn't until 1958 that the American | | | | plans. Gallagher then quickly went to get |
| Congress first investigated the possibility | | | | approval from Continental Telephone and the |
| of a universal emergency number for the | | | | commissioner of Alabama Public Service and |
| United States. Finally, in 1967, a legal | | | | then put out a press release on February 9 to |
| mandate for this action was passed. | | | | announce that the Alabama phone company would |
| | | | be making history. |
| The very first 911 call placed in the United | | | | |
| States was on February 16, 1968 in | | | | Fitzgerald went ahead and looked at all 27 |
| Haleyville, Alabama made by the Alabama | | | | Alabama exchanges and chose the Haleyville |
| speaker of the house Rankin Fite. The call | | | | location. He then engineered new circuitry |
| was answered by Congressman Tom Bevill. | | | | and made the necessary modifications needed |
| There was no actual emergency. The call was | | | | for the existing equipment. Fitzgerald and |
| simply done as a test of the system itself. | | | | his whole team worked around the clock and |
| | | | got the new 911 system up and running in |
| The difficulty in instituting the system was | | | | under a week. The team was actually doing |
| that the three numbers had to be three | | | | double duty at the time, working their |
| numbers that were not in use anywhere in the | | | | regular day jobs and then traveling to |
| United States, neither as the first three | | | | Haleyville at night to complete the project. |
| digits of a phone number, nor as any of the | | | | They did this at off peak hours so as not to |
| individual states' area codes. This had to | | | | interfere with normal operations. The |
| also be true for all phone numbers in Canada | | | | project was completed on February 16, 1968 at |
| as well. On top of that, the numbers had to | | | | exactly 2 PM. |
| be easy to use and remember. The Federal | | | | |
| Trade Commission (FTC) along with American | | | | Eye witness accounts of the event say that |
| Telephone And Telegraph (AT&T), which had a | | | | when the work was finally completed the whole |
| monopoly on phone services at the time, | | | | work team shouted, in unison, "Bingo!". |