28 June

1965: On 28 June 1965, the first commerical transatlantic telephone conversation via a satellite took place using Early Bird I. Positioned to serve the Atlantic Ocean region, Early Bird provided a communications service between North America and Western Europe. It had capacity for 240 voice circuits or one black and white TV channel.

It exceeded its planned 18-month life by two years. It was later renamed as Intelsat I.

By 1 July 1969, three Intelsat satellites in geostationary orbit provided full global coverage. Only 19 days after Intelsat III became operational, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew made their historic first landing on the Moon, watched by 500 million people back on Earth, the signals available to every part of Earth for the first time.