🇦🇹 Austria

In 1942, Hedy Lamarr was Hollywood's most beautiful woman. She was also an inventor. With composer George Antheil, she patented a frequency-hopping system to guide torpedoes without jamming. The Navy sent her to sell war bonds instead. The patent sat in a drawer for twenty years, expired worthless, then became the foundation of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. She earned nothing. At eighty-two, receiving a belated award, she said: "It was about time."