999 celebrates its birthday today

Today in 1937, the 999 service was introduced in the UK.

The UK’s 999 number was the first dedicated emergency telephone service in the world. The system was first introduced in the London area in response to a fire in a house in Wimpole Street on 10th November 1935, in which five women were killed. A neighbour had tried to telephone the fire brigade but was put in a queue by the Welbeck telephone exchange. Outraged, he wrote a letter to The Times newspaper which prompted a government enquiry.

The UK now has four emergency services, including the Coastguard, which maintain full-time emergency control centres to which 999 emergency calls may be directly routed.

Watch below the original public information film, featuring Joe and Petunia. The stars were first recruited in the late 1960s to spread the ‘Dial 999 Coastguard’ message and have been making guest appearances ever since.

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