Albert Einstein Timeline

The name Einstein is synonymous with genius, which speaks volumes about the man himself. Albert Einstein, who is believed to have been one of the brightest minds ever led an exemplary life and made an everlasting impact on the world with his contributions to the field of physics.

Albert Einstein Timeline

He was a German-born theoretical physicist and is best known today for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence ( E = mc²).

1879: On March 14th, Albert Einstein was born in to Jewish parents Hermann Einstein and Pauline Einstein in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany .

1880: The Einstein family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded a company that manufactured electrical equipment.

1884: In this year Einstein is first introduced to a compass which triggers his quest to investigate the natural world. Einstein later stated that this experience made a deep and lasting impression on his mind as a child.

1889: At age 10, he started studying subjects like math science and philosophy. A family friend called Max Talmud, a medical student, introduced the ten-year-old Einstein to some of the most defining works in the field of science, mathematics, and philosophy texts which included Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Euclid's Elements. Einstein understood the deductive reasoning From Euclid and by the age of twelve, he had learned Euclidean geometry. After this he also began to explore calculus.

1894: Einstein was fifteen when his father's business failed, and the Einstein family had to move to Italy. During this time, Einstein wrote his first scientific work The Investigation of the State of Ether in Magnetic Fields. He had been left behind in Munich to finish his high school term, but in the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia.

1895: Einstein attempted to skip high school and directly apply to the ETH Zurich. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology by taking an entrance exam to the Swiss Polytechnic. Although he got exceptional marks in maths and physics he failed the arts portion. His family then sent him to the Swiss town of Aarau to finish high school.

1896: He graduated from high school at the age of 17 and enrolls at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (ETH).

1898: Albert falls in love with Mileva Maric, a Hungarian classmate at the federal polytechnic in Zurich.

1899: Albert Einstein applied for Swiss Citizenship.

1900: Albert Einstein graduated from the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (ETH).

1901: Albert became a Swiss citizen. In the fall, he was employed with the Schaffhausen, Switzerland as a tutor. Mileva who was pregnant at this time and moved to Stein Am Rhein.

1902: In January, Mileva gave birth to their daughter, Lieserl. It is believed that this daughter was put up for adoption. Einstein took a job at the Swiss Patent Office. This was the year when his father Hermann Einstein died.

1903: Albert Einstein and Mileva got married in January.

1904: This is the year in which Mileva gave birth to their first son, Hans Albert.

1905: This year is known as Annus Mirabilis or Albert Einstein's Miracle Year which saw the birth of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. On June 30th, Einstein, submitted his paper about The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies to the leading German physics journal. At the age of 26 Einstein applied his theory to mass and energy and formulated the equation e=mc2

1907: Einstein begins applying the laws of gravity to his Special Theory of Relativity.

1910: Einstein's second son Eduard is born.

1911: The family moved to Prague where Albert was given a full professorship at the German University. Einstein was the youngest to attend the invitation-only Solvay Conference in Brussels which was the first world physics conference.

1912: The Einsteins moved to Zurich where Albert was given a position as a professor of Theoretical Physics at the ETH.

1914: Einstein became the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin and professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. The Einstein family moved to Berlin in April, but Mileva and the sons return to Zurich after 3 months owing to some major differences, which led to the divorce proceedings.

1915: This was the year in which Albert Einstein completed his General Theory of Relativity.

1917: Einstein was seriously ill when his cousin, Elsa, nursed him back to health after which he went on to publish his first paper on cosmology.

1919: Einstein married Elsa who was his first cousin. On May 29 in the same year, a solar eclipse proved the fact that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity works.

1922: This was the year when Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

1927: Einstein attended the fifth Solvay Conference. This was also the year when he began to develop the foundation of quantum mechanics with Bohr.

1928: Einstein began pursuing his idea of a unified field theory.

1932: Einstein was a popular man at the age of 53, when he began to feel the heat of Nazi Germany, owing to his Jewish origins.

1933: Einstein and Elsa, moved to the United States, where they settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein assumed a post at the Institute for Advanced Study.

1936: Albert Einstein's second wife Elsa dies after a brief illness.

1939: This was the year that marked the beginning of the second world war. Einstein wrote a famous letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning him about the possibility of Germany's building an atomic bomb and urging nuclear research.

1940: Einstein becomes an American citizen, however he retains his Swiss citizenship.

1955: On April 17 Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an aortic aneurysm. He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76.