Info about 911 Emergency
How Did They Come with 911?
The American emergency 911 number has become a symbol, not only on the territory of the United States, but also worldwide. These are the three digits that are dialed in almost every movie that you see, offering the only possible solution.
It is certain that finding a person who has not heard of the 911 number would be a painstaking effort. However, there are few people or even none who actually know how the story of this American symbol has begun.
First, you should know that in the early days of the telephone, its necessity did not existed. Each and every phone call was assisted by an operator. So, the emergency phone call of that time would just sound something like “I want to talk to the police”, “I want to report a theft.”, “I need to call the fire house”. After hearing what the problem was, the operator would make the connection to the fire department or to the police station by himself. What is really interesting is the fact that those who assured the phone assistance used to learn by their own will all kind of addresses and numbers so that they could help as many people as possible.
After the launch of the automatic phone, that worked without the help of an operator, the urge to establish a unique number for emergencies was felt. Without it, people had to know by heart a lot of different number and in crisis situations this was not too helpful. More attemps made, but all met with failure. One of the most successful ones was that of dialing “0” to find out any emergency number. For years, children in school were tought that this was what they had to do in case of emergency.
Actuallly, the first national emergency number was not used in US,but in UK. It was 999 and it started to be used in 1937. United States were not even the first to have a nationwide emergency number on the North American continent. In 1957, Canada thought it was a good idea to use the 999 number, too.
The need for such a number raised and the American authorities decided it was high time they had enforced one. IT was 1968 when 911 was born, after several years of negotiations with AT&T. On Februry 16, 1968 the first call to 911 was made to a police station from Halleyville and the phone on which it was answered is now resting in a museum. In 1972, Canada switched to 911, too.
The reason why the digits 9-1-1 were chosen is not clear at all and a lot of guesses have been forwarded. The most probable one is that this number just looked like 211 the number for long distance calls, 411 the one for information and 611-the repair service. Also, it might have been taken into consideration the fact that 9 and 1 were situated far from each other on the rotary phone-used during that period, and they could not have been dialed by mistake.
All in all, 911 is a number that has a certain place in the lives of a lot of people and it just represents the support that you know you have unconditionally. To know its history is just a little reward that it truly deserves.