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Born
Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. -
Middle Name Added
The middle name “Graham” was added when he was 10 years old. -
Bell family moves to England.
The Bell family moved to London but Aleck, as he was called, stayed in Scotland and became a teacher of elocution and music when he was 16. -
Experiment
In 1866, Bell carried out a series of experiments to determine how vowel sounds are produced -
Bell starts college and becomes sick.
He joined his older brother Melville as a student at the University of Edinburgh. He suffered illness from exhaustion and his health kept him bedridden most of the time. His younger brother Edward was also sick with tuberculosis. -
Older Brother Dies
May 28, 1870 Older brother Melville Bell dies of tuberculosis at the age of 25. -
Bell proves that telephones work.
Watson happens to pluck one of the metal reeds that formed Bell's phonoautograph machine. This accidental move showed that a telephone could transmit sounds. -
First Telephone
He invented the first working telephone in 1876. -
Bell patents his ideas.
Bell receives The U.S. Patent Office patent number 174,465. It allowed him to have his machine transmit sound waves telegraphically without others copying his ideas. -
Bell gets first long-distance call.
Bell received a long-distance voice message from a town called Brantford, about four miles away. After this major event, Bell began to demonstrate and speak about his new invention to the public. -
Bell Telephone Company is Organized
The Bell Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877. -
Married
Bell married Mabel Hubbard of Cambridge, Massachusetts. -
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Organization Formed
Aug-Sept, 1890 Bell and his supporters form the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. -
First transcontinental phone call
In January 1915, Bell was invited to make the first transcontinental phone call. From New York, he spoke with his former associate Watson in San Francisco. -
Telephone System Shut Down
Shortly after his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his genius. -
Died
Bell died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
