Nikola Tesla's Birthday
Next: July 10, 2027
The inventor who lit up the world.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the birthday of Nikola Tesla, born on 10 July 1856 in the village of Smiljan, in what is now Croatia, the son of a Serbian Orthodox priest. In 1884 he moved to the United States, where he won more than a hundred patents, and his inventions for polyphase alternating current became the cornerstone of the modern electricity system: how power is generated, carried over long distances and used in homes and factories. Both Serbia and Croatia, which each claim a share of his story, honour him on his birthday.
How it's celebrated
Serbia has marked 10 July as its Day of Science since 2010, and Croatia keeps it as the National Day of Nikola Tesla, a day of science, technology and innovation. His birth house in Smiljan is now a memorial centre. Anywhere else, it is a good day to switch on a light and think about where the power comes from, or to build a simple circuit with a curious child.
Did you know
- The tesla, the international unit of magnetic flux density, has been named after him since 1960.
- His archive, kept at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, is on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register and runs to about 160,000 pages of patents, letters, papers and drawings.
- The memorial centre at his birthplace in Smiljan opened on 10 July 2006, his 150th birthday.
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