1922 All thirteen million telephones in North America go silent for the space of one minute at sunset during the funeral services of Alexander Graham Bell . Bell is buried in a coffin built by his lab staff in a tomb carved into the solid rock of Beinn Bhreagh Mountain on his estate in Nova Scotia, Canada. To commemorate his pioneering contributions to telecommunications technology, AT&T and the Bell System suspends service at their switchboards and switching stations across Canada

Excerpt from: 
This Day in Geek History: August 4