At an exhibition at Madison Square

At an exhibition at Madison Square Garden, inventor Nikola Tesla wows audiences with a small unmanned boat that appears to change direction on verbal command. (He’s actually using radio frequencies to switch motors on and off.)Actor and hobbyist Reginald Denny sells 15,000 radio-controlled target drones to the U.S. military to train anti-aircraft gunners for World War IIThe German military debuts the FX-1400, or “the Fritz X,” a 2,300-pound bomb with four small wings and a radio controller. A breakthrough for guided aerial weapons, it also was the first remotely controlled munition put into operational use..
Photographer David Conover snaps images of Norma Jeane Dougherty—soon to be known as Marilyn Monroe—working at a wartime assembly plant. On her workbench: a half-assembled drone
At the outbreak of hostilities with Syria, Israel outwits Soviet anti-aircraft technology by using a swarm of unmanned aircraft to draw it into revealing its location.

The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAV enters service. In the decade following 9/11, the Predator will become the public face of drones.