At 36, Nikola Tesla demonstrated a rotating magnetic field that would power the modern world. Born July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Serbia, Tesla developed alternating current (AC) electrical systems that defeated Thomas Edison's direct current model in the so-called War of Currents, a triumph that now lights virtually every home on Earth. He invented the Tesla coil, pioneered early radio transmission, and imagined wireless energy transfer more than a century before Wi-Fi. Working often in poverty and obscurity, he filed over 300 patents across his lifetime. His genius sat at the intersection of physics, engineering, and vision so radical that contemporaries called him a dreamer. Today, engineers still build on his AC induction motor principles, and his name graces the world's most influential electric vehicle company, proof that truly foundational ideas never expire.