When was the telephone invented?

Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876, and just days later made the first successful voice transmission, famously summoning his assistant with the words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” The invention built on decades of work by many experimenters, and there were rival claims — notably by Elisha Gray, who filed on the same day, and Antonio Meucci, who had demonstrated earlier devices. Bell’s telephone rapidly spread, and the company he founded grew into a communications giant. Within a few decades, telephone lines connected cities and countries around the world.