Why is 911 the Emergency Phone Number in the United States? | Scientific & Historical Reasons

The number “911” is easy to remember and you can call it quickly. Most Americans call “911” at some point. But how many people know why “911” was chosen to be the nationwide emergency calling number for the North American Numbering Plan? The reasons are historical as well as scientific. Let’s review the historical reason first. In the year 1967, when the FCC met with AT&T to establish a nationwide emergency phone number, everyone realized that only a few decent number combinations were available. These number combinations had never been used before for area codes, service codes, or office codes. However, among the available combinations, the number combination “9-1-1” seemed to be the most optimal. To understand why, let’s review some scientific facts.

First, the number “9” is just one hole away from the finger stop, on North American rotary phones. So if an oddly behaving stranger visits your spooky apartment in Florida, for example, you could easily call 911 without turning on your bedroom lights, just by feeling the finger stop. Just like it is easy to locate the number “9” on a rotary phone even in pitch darkness, it is also easy to locate the number “1”. It’s located at the top of the circular dial. Got it? Great!

But that’s not it. This unique combination also gave extra advantage to blind people who wished to call 911 from a rotary phone. By the way, here’s an interesting fact. On old U.S. rotary phones, the number “1” was the fastest to dial, because it was the closest from the finger stop. Now this raises an important question. Why did the nationwide emergency number in the U.S. not begin with “0” or “1”? Well, the answer is historic again. The number “0” is usually reserved for operator assistance and the number “1” is used to dial international phone numbers from the United States. There could be more reasons behind the selection of the number combination 9-1-1, but we have covered the most significant ones in this video.

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[tammyplayz]

Why did I think it was called bcuz of 9/11

[jurassicbreakout]

I thought it was like 9/11 or something idk

[EmergencyHeadCommander]

911 is cops or ems and fire department