Selects: 911 Is Not a Joke

In February 1968, a state senator named Rankin Fite picked up a special red telephone in Haleyville, Alabama and dialed 911 for the first time in United States history. On the other end, Congressman Tom Bevill—known as the "Pork King of Congress"—was waiting at the police station to take the call. It was a publicity stunt, pure and simple. The little Alabama Telephone Company wanted to beat AT&T to the punch. But that first call launched a system that now handles 240 million calls a year, 650,000 a day, 80 percent of them from cell phones. And the system is, by the hosts' own description, "hopelessly antiquated."

The Surprising Youth of 911

Josh and Chuck open by noting that 911 feels ancient to younger listeners, but it is remarkably new. The United Kingdom introduced its three-digit emergency number, 999, back in 1937 after a deadly fire in London where callers could not get through to the fire department. The U.S. did not follow until 1968, and even then, adoption was glacial. By 1976, only 17 percent of the country had 911. By 1987, only 50 percent. Chuck himself grew up in Toledo, Ohio, which did not get a fully functional 911 system until 1989. Before that, his family kept a little card next to the kitchen phone with separate numbers for police, fire, and ambulance. It was not until 1999 that President Bill Clinton declared 911 the official emergency number for the