The most famous Croat Serb spent most of his life in New York. The corner of Bryant Park is named after Nikola Tesla, where he loved feeding pigeons. And in the New Yorker Hotel, where the scientist lived for more than ten of his final years, they placed a bust, and hung a plaque on room 3327.

In his old age, the inventor was openly struggling financially, drifting from hotel to hotel, leaving behind huge unpaid bills. By the time he moved into the New Yorker, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company began paying Tesla a salary of $125 (about $3000 in today's money) and covering his rent. He lived there until the end of his days.

In his final years, Tesla was slowly losing his mind (literally). He worked on a death ray (Teleforce) hoping it would help end wars. Despite claims that the invention was ready, no papers were ever found. All sorts of conspiracy theories still circulate that the blueprints were seized by special services.

On the Radio Wave building there's a plaque reminding us that Tesla held the first patent for radio. But in history, Marconi went down as the inventor of radio. And he even won a Nobel Prize for it. In subsequent years, lawsuits over the invention rights continued. In 1904, a US court awarded primacy to the Italian, despite the patent history. Plus, he had excellent connections in England, which contributed to the rapid commercial growth of his company. After Tesla's death in 1943, the court reconsidered its decision. Partly because Marconi's company (Marconi himself was already gone) tried to get a ton of money from the US for violating the radio patent during World War I. Anyway, for Nikola it was already too late.