From the Sunday, Feb. 18, 1968 issue of the "Daily Northwest Alabamian"– state Rep. Rankin Fite placing the first-ever 911
call from the mayor’s office–that’s Mayor James Whitt behind him.
February 16, 1968 saw the first official "911" call placed in the
United States. Now taken for granted as first course of action
in the event of emergency by nearly all of the nation’s 327
million people, 911 is a relatively recent invention and was
still not standard across the United States for many years
after its adoption by Congress.
As telephones became common in U.S. households, fire
departments around the country recommended establishing
a single, simple number to be dialed in the event of a fire or
other emergency. A similar system had been implemented in
the United Kingdom decades earlier, in 1936, when the code
999 was chosen for emergency telegraph and phone
communications.
