Marconi caught the first transatlantic radio signal on a kite-flown wire in 1901

On 12 December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi flew a kite carrying a 500-foot antenna above Newfoundland and picked up the letter 's' in Morse code, sent wirelessly from Cornwall, England, 2,200 miles away. Many physicists doubted radio waves could follow the Earth's curve that far; the demonstration helped launch global wireless communication.

— Guglielmo Marconi, Wireless Telegraphic Communication — Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1909