The invention of practical radio, or wireless telegraphy, is widely credited to Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who developed a system for transmitting signals using radio waves in the late 1890s, culminating in the first transatlantic radio message in 1901. 

Key Milestones in the Development of Radio:

Late 1890s:

Guglielmo Marconi, building on the work of physicists like James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz, developed a practical wireless telegraphy system, transmitting signals over short distances. 

1895:

Marconi successfully transmitted electrical signals through the air from one end of his house to the other, and then from the house to the garden, marking the dawn of practical wireless telegraphy. 

1896:

Marconi filed a patent for his wireless telegraphy system in England. 

1897:

Marconi established the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the United Kingdom. 

1901:

Marconi achieved the first transatlantic radio communication, transmitting a signal across the Atlantic Ocean. 

1906:

Canadian-born physicist Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first long-distance transmission of human voice and music. 

1909:

Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". 

1920:

The first commercial radio broadcast was transmitted by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh. 

1933:

Edwin Howard Armstrong invented FM radio.