early 12c., one of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the sacred college (short for cardinalis ecclesiae Romanae or episcopus cardinalis), from Latin cardinalis principal, chief, essential (see cardinal (adj.)). Ecclesiastical use began for the presbyters of the chief (cardinal) churches of Rome.
In 1889, the rotary telephone dial was invented by Almon B. Strowger , a Kansas City undertaker. The first dial exchange was installed at La Porte, Indiana, in 1892. In 1943, Philadelphia was the last major area to give up dual service.
The Cell Phone: Marty Cooper's Big Idea. Editor's note: Though Martin Cooper and his team at Motorola built and demonstrated the first cell phone, there were many fathers of the technology involved in transmitting calls. Prominent among them: Amos Joel, Jr. of AT&T/Bell Labs, who created the system that switches signals from one cell tower to another - the basic component that lets callers talk while moving.