Tennis legend Billie Jean King speaks during an event last year. (Getty Images)
Tennis legend Billie Jean King is quite active on Twitter and likes to interact with her fans through the social media platform.
The 78-year-old posted a tweet remembering the late Hedy Lamarr on her 108th birthday. Lamarr was a very popular actress in the 1940s and an inventor as well. She along with composer George Antheil developed the frequency-hopping technology in 1941. Hedy and George filed a patent for their invention of a radio guidance system that hopped between frequencies so Allied torpedos won’t be tracked by the Nazis.
The technology might not have been used in World War II but it was used during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, the WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth technology that we are using nonchalantly have been based on the findings of Hedy and George.
King lavished praise on Lamarr in her tweet and thanked her for her contributions.
We have inventor and actress Hedy Lamarr to thank for WiFi, GPS, & Bluetooth.
She pioneered the technology that would go on to power these systems.
“The mother of WiFi” would have turned 108 years young today.
Billie Jean King is a 12-time singles Grand Slam champion, 16-time doubles Grand Slam champion, and 11-time mixed doubles Grand Slam champion.
The former world No. 1 bagged her first singles Grand Slam title in the 1966 Wimbledon Championships while her last singles Grand Slam title came in 1975 in the grass-court major.
| Tournament | Years when she won the title |
| Australian Open | 1968 |
| French Open | 1972 |
| Wimbledon | 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975 |
| US Open | 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974 |
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