Albert Einstein: A Timeline of his Life

Albert Einstein: A Timeline of his Life Albert Einstein has been a common name among us all, but what actually is he famous for? In this I hope to provide you with a chronological summary of the important events in the life of Albert Einstein, from his birth in 1879 to his death in 1955.

On March 14th 1879 Albert Einstein was born to Hermann and Pauline in Ulm, Germany. He was born to a middle-class German Jewish family. His parents were concerned that he scarcely talked until the age of three, but he was not so much a backward as he was a quiet child. Unlike more common children he would build tall houses of cards and he hated playing soldier. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) At the age of twelve he was fascinated by a geometry book. At the age of fifteen in 1895 Albert quit high school disgusted by rote learning and martinet teachers, and followed his family to Italy where they moved their failing electro technical business. After half a year of wandering and loafing, he attended a congenial Swiss school. The next year he entered the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) In 1900 after working hard in the laboratory but skipping lectures, Einstein graduated with an unexceptional record. For two grim years he could find only odd jobs, but he finally got a post as a patent examiner. He married his classmate Mileva Maric in 1903 they had a child Lieserl in 1902 whom they eventually put up for adoption she became ill and died, all of her records disappeared. That same year Albert’s father Hermann becomes ill and dies. (www.personal.kent.edu) Albert’s first son Hans Albert was born in 1904. Einstein’s “Miracle Year” came in 1905 where he wrote four fundamental papers, all in a few months. The first paper claimed that light must sometimes behave like a stream of particles with discrete energies, “quanta”. The second paper offered an experimental test for the theory of heat and proof of the existence of atoms. The third paper addressed a central puzzle for physicists of the day- the connection between electromagnetic theory and ordinary motion-and solved it using the “principle of relativity.” The fourth showed that mass and energy are two parts of the same thing, mass-energy (E=mc2). (www.aip.org/history/einstein) By the age of 30 Einstein became an assistant professor at the University of Zurich, his first full-time physics job. Mileva gave birth to their second son Eduard in 1910. In 1911 he moved on to the German University of Prague. He continued to publish important physics papers, and was beginning to meet fellow scientists. The following year he returned to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich as Professor. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) By 1914 Einstein moved to Berlin, taking a research post that freed him from teaching duties. He separated from his wife and two sons this same year and when the First World War broke out, he rejected Germany’s aggressive war aims, supporting the formation of a pacifist group. After decades of though, with entire years spent in blind alleys, Einstein in 1915 completed his general theory of relativity. Overturning ancient notions of space and time, he reached a new understanding of gravity. Meanwhile he continued to sign petitions for peace. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) As Germany collapsed in 1918, Einstein became more involved in politics and supported a new progressive party. The next year he remarried and his general theory of relativity received stunning confirmation from British astronomers: as Einstein predicted, gravity bends starlight. In the popular eye he became a symbol of science and of thought at it’s highest. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) During 1921 aided by his fame, Einstein championed the fledgling German republican government and other liberal causes. Partly as a result of this, he and his theory of relativity came under vicious attack from anti-Semites. He began travelling, attended an International Trade Union Congress in Amsterdam, and visited the United States to raise money for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The following year he received the Nobel Prize. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) Unwilling to live in Germany under the new Nazi government, Einstein in 1933 joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He turned away from strict pacifism and warned world leaders to beware of German aggression. He also worked to rescue Jewish and other political victims of Nazis. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) In 1939 Einstein signed a letter that informed U.S. President F.D. Roosevelt of the possibility of nuclear bombs, warning that the Germans might try to develop them. The next year Einstein became an American citizen. (www.aip.org/history/einstein) On April 16 1955 at the age of 76 Albert Einstein dies of heart failure. (www.personal.kent.edu) Albert Einstein was a wise man who loved science and math but most of all he wanted world peace. Einstein once said “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.” To emphasize the passive nature of Albert he had another famous quote, “How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot.” Einstein was not only a genius he was concerned about the welfare of all people.

References
(1996-2010) Albert Einstein in Brief, The Center for History of Physics Retrieved from http://www.aip.org/history/Einstein/inbrief.htm
(2010) A Chronology of Einstein’s Life, Rashid Bi