Nikola Tesla, born in Smiljan (present-day Croatia) into a Serbian Orthodox family, trains at the Graz Polytechnic (Austria) and the University of Prague before emigrating to New York in 1884. In 1897 he patents in the US the tuned wireless transmission system with four tuned circuits (patent no. 645,576, granted 20 March 1900), describing the fundamental principles of radio communication: resonance, tuning, and the transmission of electromagnetic energy over distance. His public demonstrations at Madison Square Garden (1898) include the first radio-controlled vehicle in history. Guglielmo Marconi applied for a US patent in 1900; it was repeatedly rejected by the Patent Office due to Tesla's priority, meaning Marconi was explicitly notified that Tesla was earlier. In 1904 the Patent Office reversed its position and granted the patent to Marconi. Tesla sued for infringement; the litigation was resolved posthumously: on 21 June 1943, the US Supreme Court (Marconi Wireless Tel. Co. v. United States, 320 U.S. 1) confirmed that Tesla's patents anticipated Marconi's. The Germanic civilization classification reflects that his intellectual formation took place entirely in German-speaking institutions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; all his scientific work was carried out in the US.