<P> In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the development of the rotary dial telephone, all telephone calls were operator - assisted . To place a call, the caller was required to pick up the telephone receiver, sometimes turn a magneto crank, and wait for the telephone operator to answer . The caller would then ask to be connected to the number they wished to call, and the operator would make the required connection manually, by means of a switchboard . </P> <P> In an emergency, the caller might simply say "Get me the police", "I want to report a fire", or "I need an ambulance or doctor". Until dial service came into use, one could not place calls without proper operator assistance . </P> <P> The first known use of a national emergency telephone number began in the United Kingdom in 1937, using the number 999, which continues to this day . In the United States, the push for the development of a nationwide American emergency telephone number came in 1957 when the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended that a single number be used for reporting fires . The first city in North America to use a central emergency number was the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1959, which instituted the change at the urging of Stephen Juba, mayor of Winnipeg at the time . Winnipeg initially used 999 as the emergency number, but switched numbers when 9 - 1 - 1 was proposed by the United States . In 1967, the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended the creation of a single number that could be used nationwide for reporting emergencies . The Federal Communications Commission then met with AT&T in November 1967 in order to choose the number . </P> <P> In 1968, the number was agreed upon . AT&T chose the number 9 - 1 - 1, which was simple, easy to remember, dialed easily, and because of the middle 1, indicating a special number (see also 4 - 1 - 1 and 6 - 1 - 1) worked well with the phone systems in place at the time (which 999 would not). At the time, this announcement only affected the Bell System telephone companies; independent phone companies were not included in the emergency telephone plan . However, Bob Gallagher of the Alabama Telephone Company decided he wanted to implement it ahead of AT&T, and the company chose Haleyville, Alabama, as the location . </P>

9-1-1 is the universal emergency number from any telephone in the united states