December 1, 1878 – First Telephone Installed in the White House by President Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes served as the 19th President of the United States, from 1877-1881. He graduated from Harvard Law School and practiced law in Ohio, eventually becoming involved in politics. He made speeches in favor of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. He served four years, and was wounded five times. In 1865 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and in 1867 he was twice elected governor of Ohio. In 1876 Republicans chose Hayes as their candidate on the seventh ballot. When the outcome of the election between Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden was indeterminate, a special electoral commission was appointed to ascertain the winner. A deal was made that Hayes, if chosen, would endorse the Democratic goal of ending the military occupation of the South, inter alia. Voting 8-7 on party lines, the presidency then went to Hayes.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Hayes advocated a number of policies unpopular with Congress, including civil service reform, which would cut into that body’s patronage power. He also vetoed seven bills by Congress that attempted to take away rights of black voters, and one bill restricting Chinese immigration. In the end, the veto was really all he had; he could not get any affirmative measures passed by Congress. He chose not to run for a second term.

One thing he did accomplish however occurred on this day in history, when President Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House, in the mansion’s telegraph room. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, installed it himself. The White House phone number was “1.” It would be 50 more years until President Herbert Hoover had the first telephone line installed at the president’s desk in the Oval Office.