The first call from a handheld mobile phone went to a rival.
On 3 April 1973 Motorola engineer Martin Cooper rang his counterpart at competitor Bell Labs from a Manhattan sidewalk.
More amazing facts
- 1971 In 1971 astronaut Alan Shepard played golf on the Moon.
- 1971 The US–China thaw began when an American table-tennis player missed his bus. At the 1971 World Championships in Nagoya, Glenn Cowan hopped on the Chinese team's bus, where world champion Zhuang Zedong struck up a conversation.
- 1972 · 2008 The Norwegian King’s Guard knighted a penguin.
- 1973 · 1977 George Lucas secured the merchandising and sequel rights to Star Wars before filming, after the 1973 hit American Graffiti.
- 1974 In one month of 1974 a soldier who had ignored the end of the war for 29 years gave up, and an army that had waited 2,200 years was found: Onoda surrendered on 10 March, the Terracotta Army turned up on 29 March.
- 1975 In 1975 an American became a millionaire selling ordinary stones.