Who invented the microwave oven?

This invention is credited to Percy L. Spencer, a World War II hero and electronics genius. One day he was in a laboratory and stopped in front of a magnetron, the power tube that drives a radar set. He then noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted in the tube’s presence. He experimented with unpopped popcorn, and sure enough the magnetron “heated” the corn to popping, spurring his company, Raytheon, to develop the first microwave oven. It reportedly weighed 750 pounds, was more than 5 feet tall, and didn’t work all that well. It took decades to perfect the microwave oven into the useful household appliance we know today.