Nikola Tesla biography (7 videos)

Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan on July 10th 1856, a little village near Gospić in Lika, Croatia. Their family name was not always Tesla. It had been Draganić, surname Tesla was given to them afterwards. Namely, allegedly one of Nikola's ancestors had extremely big front teeth that resembled carpenter tools ("Tesarski" alat) so he got the nickname "Tesla" after it.
Nikola grew up in a land-tilling environment. In those days Lika was one of the most underdeveloped and isolated regions of the Hapsburg Monarchy. Illiteracy, lack of education were characteristics of a whole southeast part of the Monarchy. Apart from that, up to 1881 Lika was included in Military Border so the life in the that region was far harder and more cruel than the life in the civil part of Croatia.
Up to age of ten, there was no possibility for Nikola to see the locomotive let alone to find out anything about the world technical achievements. One of the earliest events that Tesla remembered was that when he had been locked in a little mountain church. At the age of five Nikola would take a walk on Velebit, which towered above his home village...