Talk

April 3, 1973: Martin Cooper of Motorola uses the first portable handset ... to make the first cellphone call ... to his rival at Bell Labs.

He helped create the Motorola DynaTAC (for DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage): 9 inches tall, 2½ pounds, with 30 circuit boards. You could talk for 35 minutes, and it took 10 hours to recharge.

Cooper recalls: "I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter -- probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life."

{wired.com}