Your Day in Oddness: The Mysterious Death of Nikola Tesla

On this day in 1943, genius inventor Nikola Tesla died alone and penniless in a New York City hotel room. Immediately after his death, all of his scientific papers vanished. These papers contained information about a “Death Ray” that was designed for military purposes. Tesla, who had been working this invention for years, claimed it was capable of destroying 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles. It has long been rumored that the infamous Tunguska blast of 1908 – which leveled several miles of forest in Siberia – was caused by an accidental transmission of Tesla’s Death Ray.

Oooopsie!