Tech History Made on December 12, 1901

December 12th, 1901: Marchese Guglielmo Marconi received, for the first time in history, transatlantic radio-wave signals. He was in Newfoundland and received the signal from his assistants in England 4800 miles away. Marconi's interest in the radio signal spawned from his studies of Hertz's electromagnetic wave experiments. Hertz found that when electricity was arched between two poles, invisible waves were produced. Marconi used Hertz's discovery to transmit a signal across greater and greater distances, eventually working up to his 4800 mile feat. Later in life Marconi would go on to become the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics.