TODAY: Today is the anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday. He was born March 3, 1847.

Sally Ryan Costik of the Bradford Landmark Society shared some trivia about telephones in his honor.

As a tribute to Alexander Graham Bell when he died in 1922, all the telephones stopped ringing for one full minute (14 million telephones in US and Canada were affected).

“Ahoy” was the original telephone greeting suggested by Alexander Graham Bell, but was later superseded by Thomas Edison, who suggested ‘hello’ instead.

The American Bell Telephone system was named after Alexander Graham Bell. However, the Canadian Bell Telephone system wasn’t named for Alexander Graham Bell. It was named for his father, Alexander Melville Bell. Being a good son, he gave his father the Canadian rights to the telephone.

Phone service was established at the White House one year after its invention. President Rutherford B. Hayes was the first to have phone service (1877-81).

In the early days of the telephone, operators would pick up a call and use the phrase, “Well, are you there?” It wasn’t until 1895 that someone suggested answering the phone with the phrase “number please?”

Bell’s version of the telephone received a patent from the US Patent Office on March 7, 1876. When he tested it three days later on March 10, 1876 with the line, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” he was 29 years old and Mr. Watson was 22.

There used to be a height requirement for switchboard operators (5 ft 3in), to ensure they could reach the top of the board.

“Cellular phones,” or more commonly today “cell phones,” get their name from the fact that areas served by towers are divided up into “cells.” The first use of the word “cellular” in this fashion was in 1977. The first documented use of the word “cell phone” was in 1984.