Special Agent 911 is always busy collecting information for this portion of our web site. If you have any interesting 911 facts please CONTACT US and your information may be displayed on this page by Special Agent 911.
Please check back often and make sure you tell your friends and family about Special Agent 911 and our web site.
Facts
- Only two countries in the world use 9-1-1 as the emergency number. Canada and the United States.
- The first country in the world to have an emergency number system was Great Britain and the number was 999.
- The first 9-1-1 call on the planet was made on February 17th, 1968 from Haleyville Alabama by a United States Senator.
- 9-1-1 was first implemented in the United States for a quick respone line for fires only but was so effective it was later expanded to include Police and medical emergencies too!
- Reasons why 9-1-1 is the chosen number in North America can vary. Most reasons apply along practical applications of using the number. For instance 9 and a one and a one is harder to mistakely dial then 999. Also it had the ability to be dialed quicker than 999 on the old rotary dial phones which took extra time to dial the nines. Using 9-1-1 saved dialing time.
- Also when 9-1-1 is printed and displayed upside down you can recognize the difference but 999 upside down looks like 666. The mark of the beast in the Bible!
- 9-1-1 was determined as the number to use before touch tone phones so no reasons are tied to this particular issue however now it is apparently understood that having the numbers on the opposite corners of the dial pad makes it easier to teach children the number and also a lot less likely for them to dial 9-1-1 when playing with the phone and just repeatedly hitting the 9 button.
- Also the large incumbent Telphone Companies started using numbers ending with 1-1 as a way to provide services to the public such as 4-1-1 for information and 6-1-1 for repair service and there were no area codes that started with a 9 when 9-1-1 was implemented. Today services like 3-1-1 and 5-1-1 and others are common.
- The color of the 9-1-1 number when displayed should always be in RED because it is the color that the human eye focuses on first out of the colors of the light spectrum. It has nothing to do with the fact that lights on Fire trucks, Police cars or ambulances are red or it is a nice bright color.