The first direct observation of the cosmic microwave background was made inadvertently in 1964 by American physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of Bell Telephone Laboratories, the research branch of AT&T. In the 1960s everyone knew about microwaves, but almost no one had the technology to detect them. Bell Labs, a pioneer in the communications industry, developed a beefy, horn-shaped antenna for just that purpose.
