I feel fairly certain that when the Wright brothers flew, they did not need to contact air traffic control for clearances.
These days, it isn't uncommon for the entirety of a flight to be under ATC control, from before leaving the departure gate to after landing. Even flights in uncontrolled airspace can make use of services provided by ATC.
Ignoring early departure and late approach and landing, and instead focusing on the en-route or cruise part of flight, when was the first time civilian aircraft were directed or guided from one aerodrome to another by air traffic control (or perhaps rather, what would later evolve into modern ATC; I doubt it was called "air traffic control" at the time) in a manner similar to today's? Where in the world did this take place?