First Electric Lighting System

Date: January 19, 1883 • Location: Roselle, United States

The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution and early motion pictures. The merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the competitor Thomson-Houston Electric Company resulted in the formation of General Electric. Edison registered 1,093 patents in the United States.