On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his invention of the telephone.

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his invention of the telephone. A native of Scotland, Bell developed his telephone while teaching at a school for the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts. His prototype featured vibrations that electronically transferred sound from one instrument to another.

A few days after filing the patent, Bell ran his first successful test of the telephone, famously calling his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I need you.”

Did you know? The invention of the telephone was key in Bell’s love life. When he fell in love with his future wife, Mabel, her father opposed the match based on Bell’s low finances. They finally married a few days after he secured his fortune with the Bell Telephone Company, and he referred to her as “the girl for whom the telephone was invented.”