Tesla Dies in New York: Genius Behind AC Power
Nikola Tesla died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, $50 in debt to the management. His deathbed companion was a pigeon he'd nursed back to health. The man who invented alternating current, the radio transmission system, the induction motor, and the basic principles behind radar and X-ray technology died broke because he was a catastrophically bad businessman. Edison beat him in the press. Westinghouse used his patents. Marconi got the Nobel Prize for radio. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually voided Marconi's radio patents in Tesla's favor — but that was in 1943, the same year Tesla died.
January 7, 1943
83 years ago
What Else Happened on January 7
Caesar heard the Senate's ultimatum and grinned. Twelve years of political maneuvering had led to this moment. The tribunes Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius race…
The Byzantine palace looked more like a street brawl. Nikephoritzes, the tax collector everyone despised, was about to learn how much people hated him. Crowds s…
He was 26 and stepping into a kingdom shaped by his father's careful political maneuvering. Alfonso IV would become known as the Brave, but not for battlefield …
French forces under the Duke of Guise seized Calais, ending over two centuries of English rule on the continent. This swift victory stripped England of its fina…
He wasn't born royal. Boris Godunov clawed his way from court advisor to absolute monarch through a web of cunning and calculated moves. And when Tsar Feodor I …
The entire settlement went up like kindling. Just nine years after its founding, Jamestown—the first permanent English colony in North America—burned to the gro…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.