Born: 14 March 1879 · Died: 18 April 1955 · Age: 76
Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose theories of special and general relativity, and the equation E=mc², transformed our understanding of space, time and energy
Did you know?He was offered the presidency of Israel in the early fifties but politely declined the position.
Editor's Take:
What makes Einstein endlessly fascinating is not just that he was right, but how he got there: by picturing simple scenes, like a falling lift or a beam of light, and refusing to accept the obvious answer. He did his most revolutionary work as an outsider, without a university post, which is a reminder that big ideas do not always come from the expected places. His theories were so strange that it took decades of experiments, from bending starlight to clocks flown around the world, to confirm them fully. He also became something science had never had before, a global celebrity whose face stood for intelligence itself. Few people have shaped both modern physics and popular culture so completely.
Key Milestones
1905: Publishes four landmark papers, including special relativity and E=mc²
1915: Presents the general theory of relativity in Berlin
1919: An eclipse expedition confirms his prediction that gravity bends light
1922: Receives the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics
1933: Leaves Nazi Germany for Princeton
1939: Signs the letter to Roosevelt warning of atomic weapons
Theoretical physicist who developed the theories of special and general relativity and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
— Albert Einstein, 1929 interview
“God does not play dice.”
— Albert Einstein, paraphrasing a 1926 letter to Max Born
The patent clerk who rewrote the laws of the universe
In 1905, at just 26 and working in a Swiss patent office, Einstein published papers that changed physics. E = mc² revealed that mass and energy are the same thing, which explains why the Sun shines. His theory of relativity showed that space and time are woven into a single fabric, space-time. Moving clocks tick slower, and gravity is simply mass curving that fabric.
A 1919 eclipse proved him right, and he became world-famous overnight. He won the 1921 Nobel Prize, fled Nazi Germany and campaigned for peace. Today your phone's GPS still relies on his maths.
Did you know?He shares his birthday with Pi Day, 3.14.
Albert Einstein's birthday is March 14. Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany.
How old was Albert Einstein at the time of death?
Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, aged 76.
Who shares a birthday with Albert Einstein?
Famous people who share Albert Einstein's March 14 birthday include Michael Caine, Aamir Khan, Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Paul Ehrlich and Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.
