Alexander Graham Bell Day is celebrated on March 7 every year.
It was on this day that Bell was granted a patent for “transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically,” and on March 10, Bell made the now iconic statement, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you,” through a transmitter.
His assistant Thomas Watson, who was in the next room, received the ‘call’ and heard the voice clearly — thus, the first telephone call was made.
In honor of the day, he was granted the patent, people around the world celebrate March 7 as a day of innovation and invention.
The holiday is recognized by an official act of the legislature in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist and inventor who is best known for inventing the telephone. Bell was born on March 3, 1847, and all through his life, he was encouraged by his partially deaf mother to pursue scientific study.
Bell’s father was an influential figure who taught deaf students and fostered communication within the deaf community, something which Bell himself was great at from a very young age.
Bell went on to work with the deaf community throughout his own life and eventually married a deaf woman just like his father had done. His mother, Eliza Grace Symonds, and wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, both lost their hearing due to childhood illness.
It was Bell’s determination to help deaf people that inspired most of his inventions, including the telephone. He was working on making improvements to the telegraph system when he got the idea to try transmitting speech telegraphically, something that hadn’t been done before.
That was what led to the telephone. Telephones have become such an important part of our society today, and many innovations in communication have been made since then.
In addition to the telephone, Bell is also credited with inventing the metal detector and developing the Hydrodome, a watercraft that set a world marine speed record in 1919. He was the second elected president of the National Geographic Society.
We celebrate Bell and his many accomplishments on Alexander Graham Bell Day.
