Dial 1 for Long Distance

Red and blue text on a white background; the number "1" is illustrated to look like the button on a touch-tone phone

By the year 1912, phone calls could be made as far apart as New York and Colorado and by 1915 the technology for calls that stretched fully across the country had been invented. By no means easily accessible or widespread, people had to go to specialty phone boxes and human operators that would route calls in order to conduct long distance calls. It wasn’t until 1951 that telephone companies had advanced to the point that direct dialing long distance calls became an option on the phones people had in their businesses and homes. The first long distance direct dial call was between the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey and the mayor of Alameda, California on November 10, 1951.