Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, a Serbian engineer born in what is now Croatia, arrived in New York in 1884 with little money, briefly worked for Thomas Edison, then struck out on his own. His alternating current motor and system, licensed to George Westinghouse, powered the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the Niagara Falls power station. He died poor in a New York hotel in 1943, but his name lives on.