The First 9-1-1 Emergency Telephone System on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system went into service in Haleyville, Alabama on this day in 1968. In the UK the emergency number is 999. Winnipeg (Canada) adopted the 999 number in 1959, but it was later changed to 911 (1967). 911 was chosen because it was easy to remember, and it wasn't already used as an area code. 999 was partially rejected here because using the same number 3 times could easily be done by mistake (like a butt-call). 

In Europe the emergency number is 112 (India also uses 112), in Australia it is 000, New Zealand has 111, Japan has 110 for police and 119 for ambulance and Brazil has 190 for police, 192 for ambulance and 193 for fire. Some places, like Hong Kong have two emergency numbers depending on if you use a landline (999) or a mobile phone (112).