Born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan (now Croatia), Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, engineer, and physicist. Tesla is most famously known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity system. <br /> <br />Though he died poor in 1943, his reputation and inventions have caused a recent popular culture resurgence, where he's now being depicted in movies, graphic novels, music and video games. <br /> <br />In 1960, the General Conference on Weights and Measures introduced the term “tesla” to the International System of Units for the SI unit measure for magnetic field strength.
