Thomas Edison was born on this day in 1847. He went to school for only a few months as a child, but learned about a vast array of subjects through self-study throughout his life. He started as a newsboy as a teenager at a railroad station, later transitioning to becoming a full-time telegrapher, a more technical kind of work. It would take a few more years before he started a career focused on inventing new technologies — a pretty risky endeavor.
His first successful attempt as an inventor came shortly after a move to New York in 1869, where he created a stock ticker that outperformed existing machines. He then worked on improving telegraph machines in his own workshop in New Jersey before moving to Menlo Park, N.Y., where he'd set up the first-ever research and development laboratory. There, he created the tin foil phonograph, which was the first popular public product that could record and play back sound.
A decade later, he'd create electric lighting, kicking off a whole new industry dedicated to generating and moving power around the country. He would found yet another industry in the 1890s, when he started filming movies and showing them to the public.
It's near impossible to document all of the important innovations that Edison kickstarted, but this article from the National Park Service does a pretty good job.
