Timeline of Albert Einstein

Einstein was offered the position of the President of Israel in 1952, which he politely declined.

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 who ever lived, led an exemplary life and made an everlasting impact on the world with his contributions to the field of physics.

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 14, Albert Einstein was born to Jewish parents Hermann and Pauline Einstein in Ulm, Germany.

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

1881: Albert's sister, Maja, was born two years after his birth.

1884: Einstein was first introduced to a compass which triggered his quest of studying the natural world. He later said 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 child to some of the most defining works in those fields which included Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Euclid's Elements.

1894: Due to reasons not very clear, the family moved to Italy, leaving behind 15-year-old Albert in Munich to finish his schooling. However, he joined them in Italy barely a term after they left.

1895: Einstein attempted to skip high school and directly apply to the ETH, the Swiss Polytechnic University in Zurich, for which he had to appear for an entrance exam. Although he got exceptional marks in math 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 enrolled at ETH, the famous Swiss Polytechnic University. He also renounced his German citizenship to avoid military service.

1898: Met and fell in love with Mileva Maric, a Hungarian classmate at ETH in Zurich.

1899: Albert Einstein applied for Swiss citizenship.

1900: Albert Einstein graduated from ETH Zurich with a physics degree.

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, moved to Stein Am Rhein. She then returned to her parents' house to give birth, while Albert moved to Bern.

1902: In January, Mileva gave birth to their daughter, Leiserl. It is believed that this daughter was put up for adoption as the unmarried couple could not take care of her. Einstein took a job as a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office. His father, Hermann Einstein died the same year.

1903: Albert Einstein and Mileva got married in January.

1904: 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 his theory of Special Relativity. On June 30 1905, Einstein submitted four path-breaking papers to a leading German physics journal. At the age of 26, he applied his theory to mass and energy and formulated the equation E = mc2

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

1910: Einstein's wife gave birth to their second son, Eduard.

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

1912: The Einsteins moved back to Zurich where Albert was given a position of professor of theoretical physics at the ETH, his alma mater.

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 their sons returned to Zurich after 3 months owing to major differences, which led to divorce proceedings. In August 1914, WWI began.

1915: The year of completion of the General Theory of Relativity by Einstein.

1917: Einstein collapsed due to exhaustion and was taken 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 worked.

1922: Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921.

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: Began his quest 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. He assumed a post at the Institute for Advanced Study.

1936: His second wife Elsa died after a brief illness.

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

1940: Einstein became an American citizen, while retaining his Swiss citizenship.

1955: On April 18, he 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.

After a glimpse at his very remarkable life, we can truly say that he was a treasure whose efforts have helped the entire world. To quote him, Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. What a gem!