Did you know that the first cell phone was invented by Jewish American engineer Martin Cooper? Born in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants who had escaped the pogroms, Cooper graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. After serving in the Korean War, he started working at Motorola in 1954. Not only did he invent the first-ever personal cell phone, but on April 3, 1973, he made history with the first public call while standing on the streets of New York City—over 50 years ago.
