The first telephones were considered to be speaking telegraphs, and they were far from the style of current models. Coming after operator-mediated telephones, rotary dial phones became popular by the late 1800s. These models, however, took a long time to operate.

On this day, November 18th, in 1963, push-button telephones were introduced into service for the first time.

Bell Telephone invented the first push-button telephone in 1941, but these early prototypes did not enter the commercial market until two decades later. The Bell System was the first to offer the technology to the public, and push-button phones appeared first in the towns of Carnegie and Greensburg in Pennsylvania.