U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for February 20 -- WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau: Profile America - Wednesday, February 20th. In the early days of the telephone, knowing who had one and what the number was quickly became a problem. The first telephone directory in the U.S. was published this week in 1878, in New Haven, Connecticut. It wasn't a big list - there were only 50 subscribers. A little later, a directory also came out in San Francisco, with about 170 names. Now, there are over 21,000 retail establishments in the U.S. selling landline and cellular phones, with annual receipts from such sales at over $10 billion. Nearly 115 million or almost 97 percent of occupied households in the U.S. have telephones. Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 1818 440 International Calendar of Events, Those Were the Days 2007 Economic Census, NAICS 443112, Product Lines, Table 1