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Birth Einstein
He birth the 14 mars in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg -
Mystery of magnetism
At the age of five, Albert Einstein becomes fascinated by his father's pocket compass, intrigued by invisible forces that cause the needle always to point north. Later in life, Einstein will look back at this moment as the genesis of his interest in science. -
Move to Italy
Struggling financially, the Einstein family moves from Germany to Italy in search of better work. Albert, aged fifteen, stays behind in Munich to finish his schooling, but soon either quits or is kicked out of his high school and follows his parents to Italy. -
Einstein at ETH
Albert Einstein graduates from high school and begins attending ETH, the prestigious Swiss Polytechnic University in Zurich. -
Annus Mirabilis
Over the course of a year that he will later describe as his "Annus Mirabilis"—his miraculous year—Albert Einstein publishes four major theoretical papers in the prestigious German academic journal Annalen Der Physik. The four papers include a groundbreaking new interpretation of the photoelectric effect (for which Einstein will eventually win the Nobel Prize) as well as the first published exploration of the theory of Special Relativity and the first formulation of the famous equation e=mc2. -
Move to Prage
The Einsteins move to Prague, where Albert assumes his first full professorship after many years working at the Swiss Patent Office or teaching in part-time positions in Switzerland. -
Move back to Zurich
After just a year in Prague, the Einsteins move back to Switzerland, to where Albert takes professorship at his alma mater, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. -
Director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
Albert Einstein moves to from Zurich to Berlin to become the director of the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. His marriage to Milena begins to unravel, and his wife and children decide to stay behind in Zurich. They will never live together as a family again. -
General Theory of Relativity
Einstein completes his General Theory of Relativity. -
Restoration of German Citizenship
At the close of World War I, Albert Einstein regains his German citizenship in a gesture of solidarity with liberal new government of the Weimar Republic. -
Divorce and Remarriage
After several years of estrangement, Albert divorces his first wife Milena Maric and immediately remarries. Einstein's second wife, Elsa Lowenthal, is a cousin with whom he fell in love when she nursed him back to health following a serious illness in 1917. -
Nobel Prize
Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect, first published in 1905. -
Escape from Nazi Germany
Albert Einstein and his family, fearing anti-Semitic persecution, flee from Nazi Germany to resettle in the United States. Einstein takes a post at Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, where he will remain until his death in 1955. -
Letter to President Roosevelt
Fearing that Nazi scientists might win the race to develop the world's first atomic bombs, Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to launch an American program of nuclear research. -
Death of Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein dies of heart failure at the age of 76.
