By Brittany Faush
The story has often been told of the first telephone call from inventor Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, Thomas Watson, on March 10, 1886. And it’s easy to find online the historic recording of the first transatlantic call from the U.S. to Great Britain on Jan. 7, 1927.
But even many people in Alabama don’t know about the history-making telephone call placed in Haleyville on Feb. 16, 1968 — the first call made on an emergency telephone system that has saved countless lives in the 50 years since.
Steve Souder, director of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Department of 911, referred to that Haleyville call as “the call that changed America.”“Nine-one-one is the most important number in the United States. It’s the most recognized number in the United States,” Souder said. The number is called 6.5 million times a day, he said, and 911 has saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars in property.
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