Work on electro-magnetism and AC current. Credited with many patents from electricity to radio transmission. Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July 1856 to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Australian Empire. His father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodoxed priest.Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla , whose father was also a Serbian Orthodox priest. On 7 January 1943, Tesla, 86, died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel.