Einstein Born: Physics Gains Its Greatest Mind
Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. His parents worried he was slow. He didn't speak fluently until he was nine. His school recommended he leave. He couldn't get a teaching job after graduation. He took work at the Swiss Patent Office. Three years later, still at the patent office, he published four papers in a single year. One explained why atoms exist. One proved light is made of particles. One introduced special relativity. One gave the world E=mc². He was 26. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921 — not for relativity, but for the photoelectric effect, because the Nobel committee wasn't sure about relativity yet. He was in Japan when they told him.
March 14, 1879
147 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Nobel Prize in Physics
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Nobel Prize
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Albert Einstein
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Albert Einstein
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Nobel Prize
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William Alfred Fowler
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1921 en science
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1983 en science
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1955
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1911
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theoretical physicist
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United States
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Switzerland
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Germany
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1921
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Physics
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1983
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