When social security numbers first came into existence in the mid-1930s, you couldn't give those numbers away. Or at least not the lowest possible SSN of them all: 001-01-0001.
Like phone numbers, social security numbers are grouped by the first three "area" numbers, which determine where in the U.S. they are assigned. And to honor the Social Security Board Chairman at the time, John G. Winant (a former three-term governor of New Hampshire), by offering him the unique number, the lowest area numbers were assigned to the Granite State.
The only problem was, Winant, for whatever reason, didn't want the lowest number. So the cool, long string of 0's and 1's, which looks more like binary code than a social security number, was then offered to another gentleman named John Campbell, a representative for the Federal Bureau of Old Age Benefits.'
But he didn't want it either!
So what do you do with a "token of esteem" that no gentleman of high esteem wants? Offer it to a woman, of course.
But kidding aside, the lucky lady was Grace Dorothy Owen, a bookkeeper and divorcee at the time (she later remarried), who happened to be New Hampshire's first social security applicant.
And, like prison inmate numbers, social security numbers are never reused, so Owen will forever be the only soul tied to 001-01-0001.
Previously: Two women issued the same Social Security Number, and the SSA won't help
