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Happy birthday, phone! Celebrating 150 years since the first telephone call

WBUR | By Andrea Shea
Published March 13, 2026 at 12:02 PM EDT
A 1875 sketch by an unknown artist of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson conducting experiments. (Courtesy MIT Museum)
Courtesy MIT Museum
A 1875 sketch by an unknown artist of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson conducting experiments. (Courtesy MIT Museum)

These days, our phones are basically extensions of our bodies. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology historian of science and technology takes us back to Alexander Graham Bell’s famous first telephone call on March 10, 1876.

WBUR’s Andrea Shea reports.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR
Andrea Shea