You Can Still Call a Phone Number and be Told the Time by the U.S. Naval Observatory
upstart writes:
You can still call a phone number and be told the time by the U.S. Naval Observatory:
The U.S. Naval Observatory still sponsors a telephone number that will tell you the time and temperature when you call. Dial 202-762-1401 and you will get a recording of the time from the "Master Clock." Yes, a phone number to tell you what time it is. This concept is familiar if you grew up in the US during the first 90 years of the 20th century. And apparently, a few local numbers still exist.
[...] In 1963, Jane Barbe took over the role of "The Time Lady." Then, in 1983, Pat Fleet ("AT&T Lady") replaced Barbe, with Joan Daniels then replacing Fleet. The automated time service officially ended in 2007.
Click here for Pat Fleet's "Disconnected" or "No Long in Service Message." Click here for Jane Barbe's messages or here for Joan Daniels. The showman Dick Clark had a bit called Friday Night Surprise, and here is a video of Jane Barbe revealing her role in keeping people on time. In 1996, Ted Koppel interviewed Fleet and Barbe here.
It was common to call the "time phone number" and have Jane Barbe tell us the time when I was young (in our area, the phone number was TI4-1212, and incidentally the weather was got at WE6-1212), though my friend's father preferred to use WWV.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.