Apple sold its first iPad in 2010 and took two years to get 100 million devices sold. The Bell Company, renamed American Telephone & Telegraph, took closer to a century to get to that point. Adoption was hampered at first by a consumer lack of enthusiasm for the device, which itself was caused by a lack of a supporting infrastructure. When President Rutherford B. Hayes put one in the White House, his telephone number was “1” and he was limited mostly to talking with Bell himself, 13 miles away. Nevertheless, the 100 millionth connection was a milestone, and marked with great fanfare by AT&T.

On this day, May 11, 1967 AT&T marked the connection of the 100 millionth phone, an occasion they planned with celebrate by, among other things, a teleconference between the U.S. president and governors of all 50 states.

Organizing such a teleconference in the days when some phone calls were still connected by switchboard operators, was no easy feat. AT&T worked closely with then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman H.I. “Hi” Romnes to lay the connections down and even setting a backup: an identical, redundant network between the White House and the 50 governors’ mansions, activated with the flip of a switch should the first one experience any technical glitches.