text: what nationality was tesla? serbian or croatian?   tesla was from a family of serbian origin. his father was an orthodox priest.   he was born in smiljan, lika, then part of the austrian empire, today in the republic of croatia.  so, he was a serbian born in nowdays croatia.  the next includes some info of his origins. you can find it at http://www.frank.germano.com/nikolatesla.htm  nikola tesla (1856-1943) - nikola tesla was born in croatia, which at that time, lay within austro-hungary. tesla was born "at the stroke of midnight" with lightning striking during a summer storm. he was born in smiljani near gospiæ, lika, (the krajina, a military district of austro-hungarian empire, now in croatia). at the moment of his birth, the midwife commented, "he'll be a child of the storm," to which his mother replied, "no, of light." tesla was baptized in the old slavonic church rite. his baptism certificate reports that he was born on june 28 (julian calendar; july 10 in the gregorian calendar), and christened by the serb orthodox priest, toma oklobd'ija. it is interesting to note that he was a serbian of valachian descent. tesla was proud of his croatian motherland and serbian descent. when his mother died in 1892, he paid a visit to croatian capital zagreb, and gave a lecture about alternating current. on that occasion tesla said: "as a son of my homeland, i feel it is my duty to help the city of zagreb in every respect with my advice and work"  - ("smatram svojom duznoscu da kao rodeni sin svoje zemlje pomognem gradu zagrebu u svakom pogledu savjetom i cinom"). nikola tesla, besides being a great inventor and an outspoken serbian patriot, had sincerely adored free serb states, serbia and montenegro. he had never hidden his patriotic feelings, on the contrary, he stressed them.  on june 1st 1892, tesla arrived in belgrade due to a call for assistance from the belgrade municipality. several thousand people were there to greet him at the belgrade train station. he addressed the gathered crowd, who saluted him: "there is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if i would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. if those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exiting thought would be that it is a deed of a serb. long live serbdom!..." tesla further said to the students of belgrade university: "as you can see and hear, i have remained a serb overseas where i have done some researches. you should do so and by your knowledge and hard work you should glorify serbdom over the world."  i copied some tekst just for the official informations, but serbs claim that he is serbian and croats that he is croatian....