First Operator-Free Long-Distance Telephone Call

First Operator-Free Long-Distance Telephone Call

An important step forward in the development of modern telecommunications took place on November 10, 1951, when it became possible in the United States to make a long-distance telephone call without operator assistance. The feat was facilitated by the introduction earlier that year of area codes, in which each state was given one or more three-digit prefixes that made it possible to direct-dial one's intended recipient without having to ask for operator assistance. It was on November 10, 1951, that Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, on the Atlantic coast, called the mayor of Alameda, California, on the Pacific coast, in what became the first direct coast-to-coast telephone call. The expansion of the direct-dial system has continued over the decades, and today it is possible to telephone most places in the world if the caller has the right sequence of international, national, and local prefix codes.