WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20: FIRST TELEPHONE DIRECTORY

Profile America — Wednesday, February 20th.  In the early days of the telephone, knowing who had one and what the number was quickly became a problem.  The first telephone directory in the U.S. was published this week in 1878, in New Haven, Connecticut.  It wasn't a big list — there were only 50 subscribers. A little later, a directory also came out in San Francisco, with about 170 names.  Now, there are over 21,000 retail establishments in the U.S. selling landline and cellular phones, with annual receipts from such sales at over $10 billion.  Nearly 115 million or almost 97 percent of occupied households in the U.S. have telephones. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources:  Kane's Famous First Facts, 1818
440 International Calendar of Events, Those Were the Days
2007 Economic Census, NAICS 443112, Product Lines, Table 1

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau