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Published on: VG

late November 1971

Steve Wozniak and Bill Gates test their device (an idea from an issue of Esquire a few weeks earlier). It emits the right tones to fool the Bell telephone system, allowing free long-distance calls. They call the Vatican, it works, and Wozniak says he’s Henry Kissinger and needs to speak to the Pope. It takes the Vatican a few minutes to figure out it’s a prank before they wake the pontiff.