Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was born on October 25, 1881 in Milan, Ohio and died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91 in West Orange, New Jersey, having obtained 1,093 patents in his lifetime for such inventions.