<Li> 10 March 1876: Bell first successfully transmits speech, saying "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" using a liquid transmitter as described in Gray's caveat, and Bell's own electromagnetic receiver . </Li> <Li> 16 May 1876: Thomas Edison files first patent application for acoustic telegraphy for which U.S. patent 182,996 was granted October 10, 1876 . </Li> <Li> 25 June 1876: Bell exhibits his telephone at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where it draws enthusiastic reactions from Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil and Lord Kelvin, attracting the attention of the press and resulting in the first announcements of the invention to the general public . </Li> <Li> 10 August 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first long - distance telephone call, over a distance of about 6 miles, between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, Canada . </Li>

When was the telephone released to the public