Hedy Lamarr is often called “the most beautiful woman in the world.” At 26 years old, she was a big star in Hollywood. But in September 1940, something terrible happened — Nazi submarines sank a cruise ship that was trying to move 90 British schoolchildren to safety in Canada. Sadly, 77 children drowned in the cold Atlantic Ocean.
Hedy, who was Jewish and had moved to America from Nazi-controlled Austria in 1938, was heartbroken and angry. She decided to help by using her skills in engineering. She worked on creating a new sonar device that could help locate enemy submarines, giving the Allies an important advantage.
The ideas she came up with later became part of the technology we use today for Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth. In 2014, Hedy was honored for her brilliant work by being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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As an aside, when I first saw this image of Heddy Lamarr, I took a quick deep breath because she looks so much like my mom. I’ve been searching for mom’s high school photo or perhaps it was a bridesmaid picture where I believe she had an angle shot similar to this. My mother, Anne Aschettino Attardi, had the same dark features – dark eyes, pointed small chin, semi-high cheekbones, thin eyebrows, center part, and always wore deep red lipstick. This image of my mom doesn’t do the resemblance justice.
