Albert Einstein
One of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time
Here's a time line of Albert Einstein's life:
- 1879 - Born on 14 March in Ulm, Germany
- 1880 - Moves with his family to Munich
- 1885-88 - Attends a Catholic school
- 1889-94 - Student at the Luitpold Gymnasium (now the Albert Einstein Gymnasium)
- 1894 - His family moves to Milan. Einstein leaves the Institute without completing his studies and goes to Pavia, where he lives with his family
- 1895-96 - He attends the cantonal school of Aarau, Switzerland
- 1896 - He renounces his German citizenship. Admitted to the Polytechnic School in Zurich, where he completes his studies in 1900
- 1901 - Obtains Swiss nationality
- 1902 - Employed at the Swiss patent office in Berne
- 1905 - Annus mirabilis. Receives a PhD from the University of Zurich
- 1909 - Leaves his job in the patent office. Obtains a post as associate lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the University of Zurich
- 1911-12 - Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the University of Prague
- 1912-14 - Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the Federal Technological Institute of Zurich (formerly the Polytechnic)
- 1914 - Lecturer at the University of Berlin and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
- 1915 - Begins publications on the general theory of relativity
- 1917 - Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin
- 1917-20 - Einstein's health deteriorates.
- 1921 - Visits US for first time with Chaim Weizmann
- 1922 - Awarded 1921 Nobel prize for Physics.Publishes his first work on the unified field theory. Becomes member of the League of Nations' Committee on Intellectual Co-operation
- 1927 - First debates with Niels Bohr on quantum mechanics
- 1928 - Diagnosed with a heart condition
- 1933 - Einstein and his family flee to Princeton, USA
- 1939 - Outbreak of World War II. Einstein signs letter to President Roosevelt warning of the threat to the world of Germany's manufacturing an atom bomb
- 1940 - Takes American citizenship
- 1944 - Re-writes the 1905 manuscript on the special theory of relativity which is auctioned for six million dollars to aid the allied cause
- 1945 - Atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- 1946 - Chairs the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Continues his campaign against re-armament and in favour of a world government
- 1952 - Offered and declines the presidency of the state of Israel
- 1955 - With Bertrand Russell, draws up a manifesto against the nuclear threat. On 18 April, Einstein dies at Princeton hospital as the result of a burst aortic aneurysm in the abdominal aorta. He was cremated and his ashes scattered into the Delaware River
“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”
-- Albert Einstein