"I seemed to have a special... aptitude for mechanics, physics, and chemistry," wrote the brilliant early 20th-century engineer, inventor, and founder of global communications Guglielmo Marconi, "which were not taught at the school I regularly attended."

April marks the 145th celebration of Marconi's birth in Bologna, Italy, and this year is the 110th anniversary of his winning the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was the first person to systematically use radio waves to communicate over long distances, develop wireless telegraphy, and is considered the "father of radio."