eyerolling Just to play devils advocate:
Edison: Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons
Tesla: Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon [the Death Ray] from the early 1900s until his death. Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device. He also offered this invention to European countries.
Edison: Six children.
Tesla: Tesla was a life-long bachelor. Like many of his era, he became a proponent of an imposed selective breeding version of eugenics.
Edison: When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made was in not respecting Tesla or his work.
Tesla: The day after Edison died the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla.
We were also taught that Yugoslavia was a major factor in getting Germany to capitulate in WWII where if you think about it, it was rather insignificant on the grand scheme of things.
You can't really escape the spin. Some are for the better and some are for the worse, but hopefully, we can sort things out once we start learning and thinking for ourselves.
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventions/a/Electric_Ch...
Edison also organized electrocutions of animals: