Nikola Tesla Books
Celebrations of the Life and Work of Nikola Tesla Organized to Date
The first Nikola Tesla celebration was organized in the United States in 1916 on the initiative of the American Society of Electrical Engineers to mark the 60th anniversary of Teslaâs birth. On that occasion Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal in recognition of his discovery of the source and transmission of electricity.
The second major celebration took place in pre-war Yugoslavia - in Belgrade and in Teslaâs native place Smiljan - in 1936 to mark the 80th anniversary of his birth. In the presence of scientists from twelve countries Tesla was then elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. A memorial plaque was erected on the house in Smiljan where Tesla was born, and the people of Smiljan welcomed the decision to erect a Cultural Centre in Smiljan which would bear Nikola Teslaâs name. The Organizational Committee in Belgrade proposed that as a mark of recognition of Tesla a scientific institute be set up in Belgrade and named after him. However, these plans were not realized.
The third celebration took place in Belgrade in 1956 to mark the 100th anniversary of Teslaâs birth. This was the first jubilee to be celebrated in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the first after Teslaâs death. The celebrations were organized by the Federal National Assembly in Belgrade with the participation of scientists from 22 countries and under the sponsorship of the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. In addition to a symposium on Teslaâs life work, a museum named after the scientist was opened in Belgrade. At the same time the urn with Teslaâs ashes was brought from New York to Belgrade, because Tesla wanted his mortal remains to lie in Yugoslavia. A memorial museum was organized in Smiljan, in the house in which Tesla was born. Teslaâs childhood environment, the house, the church and the surrounding area, were proclaimed a cultural monument and placed under the protection of the state.
The fourth celebration marking the 30th anniversary of Teslaâs death was of more modest proportions and was organized in 1973 by the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts in Zagreb and the âNikola Teslaâ Museum in Belgrade. The celebrations included meetings at which several notable papers on Teslaâs life and work were read by which full honour was paid to this great Yugoslav scientist, humanist, patriot, Yugoslav and cosmopolitan.
During the great national liberation war and the struggle of the Yugoslav peoples against fascism and the occupying powers the people of Croatia, Croatians and Serbians, gave their brave 6th Lika Division the name Nikola Tesla in recognition of Teslaâs role in spreading brotherhood and unity of the Croatian and Serbian peoples and his great contribution to the formation of the present equal community of Yugoslav peoples which Tesla, although far away, ardently supported with his genius and his noble human soul. After the liberation many Yugoslav organizations
