Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July  1856 to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire. His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest. Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla , whose father was also an Orthodox priest, had a talent for making home craft tools, mechanical appliances, and the ability to memorize Serbian epic poems. Đuka had never received a formal education. Nikola credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities to his mother's genetics and influence. Tesla's progenitors were from western Serbia, near Montenegro.

AC Motor (1883): Tesla carried detailed plans for this AC motor in his head (a particular talent of his) until he could build a physical model the next year. The alternating current created magnetic poles that reversed themselves without mechanical aid, as DC motors required, and caused an armature (the revolving part of any electromechanical device) to whirl around the motor. This was his rotating magnetic field put into practice as a motor; within two years, he would use it in AC generators and transformers as well. Tesla coil (1890): The electrical coil named for its inventor is one of Tesla's showiest inventions, and he used it to its full dramatic extent in demonstrations held in his New York City lab. The coil uses polyphase alternating currents -- another of Tesla's discoveries -- to create a transformer capable of producing very high voltages. It brought forth impressive crackling sparks and sheets of electric flame that impressed the electrically savvy and the layman alike. They're primarily used for entertainment today. Radio (1897): Tesla first sent a wireless transmission from his lab at Houston Street in New York City to a boat on the Hudson River -- 25 miles (40 km) away -- in 1897; he would've done this sooner but for a fire that destroyed his previous lab in 1895. Tesla invented everything we associate with radio -- antennas, tuners and the like -- but an inventor named Guglielmo Marconi was given the actual credit. In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Tesla's patent had precedence, but the public already considered Marconi the father of radio 

There are big differences between Edison and Tesla. The main one seems to be based on who got the credit for what. Many Tesla fans accuse Edison of having stolen much from Tesla who worked for Edison during his early years. They claim Edison was a thief and that he died a rich and powerful man surrounded by friends because he robbed Tesla and others like him. Meanwhile, Tesla died broke and miserable and lonely with his closest friends being wild pigeons he had enticed into his room at the Hotel New Yorker. Edison fans similarly suggest Tesla was a swindler who deceived investors into financing his ideas with promises he rarely kept. They suggest Tesla got his just rewards. Both versions appear to be true. For example, Edison did not invent the light bulb. Joseph Swan was installing them in homes and landmarks in England years before Edison got his light bulb patented and working. Edison was buying out other people’s patents and when Swan eventually sued Edison and won, Edison had to take him in as a partner in Edison’s British company. Likewise, a deceitful Tesla managed to convince J.P. Morgan, the world’s most powerful financier at the time, to finance his concept for wireless free electricity production under the guise of sending radio messages across the oceans and to and from ships at sea. Tesla was making artificial lightning with Morgan’s money that was eventually cut off.