“Albert Einstein displayed his talent for mathematics as a very young child. When he could not find a teaching job after graduating college, he went to work at the Swiss patent office as a technical examiner, evaluating applications for electromagnetic devices which later impacted his theories on light, space and time. His most famous work stems from the intellectual output of a single year, 1905, in which he published four papers recognized today as monumental accomplishments of insight into physics. Einstein and his family left Europe for Princeton, New Jersey, just as the Nazis were beginning their rise to power. While Einstein was helping Jewish scientists flee Europe, Nazi scientists were trying to eradicate his discoveries from the German intellectual landscape. Einstein used his fame as an intellectual to oppose oppressive political regimes and support the civil rights movement.
1883
When Einstein was 4 years old, he realized the needle of his father’s compass was moved by invisible forces. The observation left a lasting impression.
1894
Einstein’s father’s business failed and the family moved from Ulm, Germany to Milan and the Pavia, Italy.
1895
Einstein applied to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) when he was 16. He failed the entrance examination but scored high in mathematics and physics.
1896
After secondary school, Einstein moved to Oslberg, Switzerland, for a teaching position and renounced his German citizenship to avoid serving in the German military. He also reapplied and was accepted to ETH Zurich.
Watershed Moment
1905
1905 was Albert Einstein’s “miracle year” of intellectual achievement. he published four works of theoretical physics, including his famous special theory of relativity. This work demonstrated that mass has energy, meaning they are equivalent to one another. It further showed that tiny amounts of mass could be converted into enormous amounts of energy, as expressed by the equation E=mc².
1921
Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for one of four ground-breaking papers and wrote in 1905.
1932
Einstein and his family left Europe for the United States in response to the growing threat of Nazism.
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