120 since first electric chair execution
 

120 years ago today, William Kemmler was executed by electric chair, the first man to be so.

Despite the fact he murdered his common law wife with a hatchet, it sounds like he suffered a great deal as the Thomas Edison approved DC current chair took its sweet time in killing him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kemmler

Ironically he fried an elephant sometiemlaster with AC current to prove how dangerous it was (and to discredit Tesla)

Hmmm... I had read that Edison campaigned to get the AC electric chair approved because he wanted people to be frightened of AC current...

Yeah - it was mostly to discredit AC because it was a rivial system to Direct current. He also had a dislike for Tesla though he once worked for Edison..

I always got the impression that Tesla was a superior inventor than Edison but lacked any real business skills.