Modern Era · North America · Technology
1973
First mobile phone call
April 3, 1973
Motorola engineer Martin Cooper placed the first public cellular phone call from a Manhattan sidewalk, to his rival at Bell Labs. The phone he held weighed two pounds. Commercial cellular service was still a decade away. Within twenty-five years, mobile phones would be in more pockets than people had books, changing what it meant to be reachable.
In context
Also in 1973 (4 other events on record)
- Roe v. Wade · North America · Politics
- Pinochet coup in Chile · South America · Politics
- Yom Kippur War · Middle East · War
- OPEC oil embargo · Middle East · Politics
Before and after in North America
- Before: 1972: Pong arrives in bars
- After: August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns
Before and after in Technology
- Before: 1972: Pong arrives in bars
- After: 1975: Microsoft and Apple begin
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.