WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19: NUMBER PLEASE?
Profile America - Sunday, February 19th. In the early days of the telephone, knowing who had them and their numbers were quickly became a problem. The first telephone directory in the U.S. was published this week in 1878 in New Haven, Connecticut. It wasn't a big list - there were only 50 subscribers. A little later, a directory also came out in San Francisco, with about 170 names. Now, there are 76 million residential telephone lines and another 45 million business lines. While directory services are well established for both types across the nation, the growing problem today is keeping track of the constantly changing phone numbers of more than 303 million cell phone subscribers. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 1818
440 International Calendar of Events, Those Were the Days
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1149/2011, t. 1146
Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
