Fifty-one years ago on April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper stood on a sidewalk in Manhattan and made the first ever call with a cellphone the size of a brick to the guy he had been racing against to develop the public cellular phone.

He said, “I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone.”

Cooper, who was then an engineer at Motorola, was talking to Joel Engel who was head of AT&T. Cellular phones would not be readily available to the general public for another ten years, so it would have been a sight to see if you would have walked by Martin Cooper that day in Manhattan.

Since then, cell phones have changed so much. They went from the size of a brick and being around 50 pounds, to a bag phone, to a handheld wireless phone with an antenna, to a flip phone, and finally to a smart phone that weighs hardly anything that you can get on the internet with. I remember my mom would tell me how when she was in high school, they had to text using the number keys. They didn’t have a keyboard to text on.

The cellular phone is amazing because it allows you to connect with the world wherever you are at any time.  It is also very vital in our world now. Having a cellular phone can help save lives. If you are out and about and need to call for help, you have a direct line of communication to emergency help at your fingertips.