Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence, E = mc2. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

Albert Einstein’s contributions are so vast it would literally BORE YOU if I chose to even list them. Works by Albert Einstein include more than fifty scientific papers and also non- scientific books.

In 1999 Einstein was named Time magazine's "Person of the Century", and a poll of prominent physicists named him the greatest physicist of all time. In popular culture the name "Einstein" has become synonymous with genius.

Albert Einstein was born into a Jewish family in Ulm, Germany.

Although Albert had early speech difficulties, he was a top student in elementary school. When Albert was five, his father showed him a pocket compass. Albert realized that something in empty space was moving the needle and later stated that this experience made "a deep and lasting impression" As he grew, Albert built models and mechanical devices for fun, and began to show a talent for mathematics.

When Albert was 10, a family friend introduced him to key science and philosophy texts. Albert began to understand deductive reasoning, and by the age of twelve, he learned geometry from a school booklet. He soon began to investigate calculus.

In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. One of the first actions of Hitler's administration was the "Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums" (the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service) which removed Jews and politically suspect government employees (including university professors) from their jobs, unless they had demonstrated their loyalty to Germany by serving in World War I.

In December 1932, Einstein had prudently travelled to the USA. He once again renounced his German citizenship and applied for permanent residency in the United States.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's file on Einstein grew to 1,427 pages. Many of the documents in the file were sent to the FBI by concerned citizens, some objecting to his immigration and others asking the FBI to protect him.

Einstein became an American citizen in 1940 although he also retained Swiss citizenship.

During the 1930s and into World War II, Einstein wrote affidavits recommending United States visas for a huge number of Jews from Europe trying to flee persecution

In 1939, Leo Szilárd and Einstein wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt warning that the Third Reich might be developing nuclear weapons based on their own research.

According to chemist and author Linus Pauling, Einstein later expressed regret about the Szilárd-Einstein letter. Within five years, the United States created its own nuclear weapons, and used them on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

One of Einstein’s popular quotes (which you might know) is: "I do not know how the third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks!"

Einstein has been quoted as saying "Racism is America's greatest disease. Einstein was a member of several civil rights groups.

On April 17, 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an aortic aneurism. He took a draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance commemorating the State of Israel's seventh anniversary with him to the hospital, but he did not live long enough to complete it. He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76. Einstein's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered.

Before the cremation, Princeton Hospital pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein's brain for preservation, in hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent.

The United States' National Academy of Sciences commissioned the Albert Einstein Memorial, a monumental bronze and marble sculpture, dedicated in 1979 at its Washington, D.C. campus.

On Einstein's 72nd birthday in 1951, photographer was trying to persuade him to smile for the camera, but having smiled for photographers many times that day, Einstein stuck out his tongue instead.