Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi, (1874-1937). Italian developer of radio telegraphy. He began research into the transmission of radio waves in 1894 and continued his experiments in Britain from 1896, achieving radio communication over 12 miles by 1897. Reaction to these advances was cool until 1899, when Marconi used radio to report on the Americas Cup Yacht Race. In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for physics. He sent the first radio message from Britain to Australia in 1918. During World War I he developed short-wave radio, initially for use in warfare. His discoveries were later applied to the transmission of signals over large distances at greatly increased power. Maria Theresa (1717-80). Archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia. The daughter of Charles VI, she succeeded to the Habsburg dominions on his death (1740) during the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48). As a woman she was unable to inherit his title, but secured this for her husband, Francis I, in 1745. On his death in 1765 their son Joseph II, one of 16 children, became Holy Roman Emperor. Maria Theresa proved herself to be a capable ruler and was a major figure in 18th-century Europe.
