On this date in 1942, Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr (Hedy Kiesler Markey) and composer George Antheil received U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 on a Secret Communication System that employed a “frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system” that would make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect and jam.

The pair donated their patent to the US Navy and never made and money from their invention, whose fundamental concept is the basis for wireless phones, Global Positioning Systems, and WiFi.

Although Hedy had little formal training, a keen mind and serendipitous encounter with George Antweil who had worked on synchronizing two player pianos, let to an ingenious solution to secure communication.

She was awarded the Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997, and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame along with her co-inventor George Antheil in 2014.