(Editor's note: Before dawn on March 9, 1916, the Mexican revolutionary leader, Pancho Villa raided the village of Columbus, New Mexico. Many businesses were burned and 18 U.S. citizens were killed.

Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...

Before smartphones, most people kept in touch using landline telephones. And before direct dialing was common, some calls were handled by switchboard operators. During the 1950s, more than 220,000 ...

HINES, Minn. — The earliest telephone systems connected people, eased some of the loneliness and isolation of homesteaders who lived far from other family members, provided alarms in times of ...

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Our phones were forever being hacked. Faye Paulson at her switchboard at the Dunolly telephone exchange, 1982, one of the last manual ...

In Gretchen Berg’s debut novel, "The Operator," a gossip-hungry telephone switchboard operator in 1950s Ohio listens in on calls. William Morrow In Gretchen Berg’s debut novel, The Operator, Vivian ...

Eventually to become affectionately known as “Old Betsy,” a Western Electric TBX-556A telephone switchboard went into service in 1958 in West Milford Town Hall to facilitate communication in the ...

With a 1-year-old daughter and a recently laid-off husband, Minnie Carver needed a job, so in May 1968, she started as a switchboard operator at Blount Memorial Hospital. She will retire at the end of ...