Can anyone take a guess as to when cellphones were invented? Well it is hard to say exactly because of ongoing research and development that took place in companies and the military. However, we do know the first ever cellphone call was made on the first ever cellphone on April 3, 1973. Yeah, 40 years ago.

The first cellphone was Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage phone (or DynaTac) made by Motorola. It weighed 3.5 lbs and was about one foot tall. Thanks to our iPhones and ‘droids, today we would scoff at such a device. Yet when Motorola vice president Martin Cooper picked up that monster on April 3, 1973 to make a short but sweet call to his rival Joel Engell at AT&T Bell Labs (who was also working on developing a cellphone) to say “Joel, I’m calling you from a cellular phone, a real cellular phone, a handheld, portable, real cellular phone”, the world was amazed.

It took Motorola ten years after Cooper made that first call to actually sell DynaTac to the public. And at $3,900 per handset, it is safe to say even some one percenters probably didn’t get one. Still, Motorola — and associated companies — had put the world on a path that would change it forever. Now the question is, was that change for better or for worse? I don’t know. All I have to say is: can you hear me now?

[via CNN]