Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany on March 14th. His family moves to Munich the following year where his father and uncle start an electrical engineering company, Einstein & Cie.
Attends the Catholic primary school, Petersschule, while receiving Judaism instructions at home and begins learning the violin. After three years he attends the Luitpold-Gymnasium.
His family moves to Italy and he stays behind to finish school. He later joins the family after leaving school prematurely and applying to the prestigious Zurich Polytechnic School (later named the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or the ETH). He fails the exam and returns to his high school studies the following year, this time at the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland where he boards with one of his professors.
He renounces his German citizenship, avoiding the military service, and after graduating from Aargau enters the ETH and receives training as a teacher in physics and mathematics. At the ETH he meets and falls in love with Serbian classmate Mileva Maric.
Graduates from the ETH and applies to become an assistant there but is not accepted.
Becomes a Swiss citizen. He publishes his first scientific paper "Conclusions Drawn from the Phenomena of Capillarity" in Annalen der Physik in March.
Works as a substitute teacher at the technical school in Winterthur and then as a tutor at a private boarding school in Schaffhausen.
A daughter is born out of wedlock to Einstein and Mileva (she is named Lieserl and it is believed that she was born in January and given up for adoption).
He begins working at the Patent Office in Bern Switzerland as a temporary Technical Expert in June – the position becomes permanent two years later.
Marries Mileva Maric on January 6th in Bern and their son Hans Albert is born the following year on May 14th.
This year is referred to as "Einstein's miracle year"; the year in which his most important scientific papers are published: "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" in June; "On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat" in July; "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" in September, and "Does The Inertia Of A Body Depend On It's Energy Content?" in November, which introduces the theory of relativity, E=MC2,
Receives a doctoral degree from the University of Zurich on January 15th and is promoted to Technical Expert Second Class, at the Patent Office, in March. His doctoral thesis is "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions".
Appointed Privatdozent (lecturer) at the University of Bern.
Becomes Extraordinary Professor at the University of Zurich in May, taking up the position in October, when he resigns from the Swiss Patent Office and the University of Bern. Receives and honorary degree from the University of Geneva.
His second son, Eduard, is born on July 28th.
Becomes Professor of Theoretical Physics at the German University of Prague in April and resigns from his post at the University of Zurich.
Attends the first world physics conference, the Solvay Conference in Brussels. At 32 years old, he is the youngest attendee.
Accepts a position as Professor of Theoretical Physics at the ETH in Zurich and resigns from the German University of Prague.
Moves to Berlin where he begins his position as a research professor at the University of Berlin and serves as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. His wife and two sons return to Zurich after a few months, signifying the beginning of the end of their marriage.
Takes ill with an ulcer and liver problems and is cared for by his cousin Elsa Lowenthal. Assumes the position, first appointed in 1913, as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in October.
Officially divorces his wife Mileva Maric on February 14th and marries his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal on June 2nd. With growing discontentment of politics and the war, Einstein begins supporting Jewish Zionist efforts, although he maintains his own non-nationalistic, pacifist views.
Travels to the United States for the first time in April to receive an honorary degree at Princeton University and deliver lectures on the theory of relativity.
Accompanies Chaim Weitzmann on a U.S. fund-raising tour for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (which officially opens in 1925 and which Einstein serves on the Board of Governors).
Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize of Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Over the next five years he travels to Asia, the Far East and South America.
As the Nazis come into power in Germany, Einstein resigns from the Prussian Academy of Sciences and emigrates to America to fill the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey (not the Ivy League Princeton University, which actively prevented the hire of Jewish professors at the time).
At the urging of his friend Leo Szilard, he pens a letter to President Roosevelt warning him of the possible use of atomic energy by the Germans in the current war. This letter is attributed to Roosevelt's push to research and develop nuclear weapons, referred to as the "Manhattan Project". Ironically, Einstein is barred from working on this project because of his political views. The following year he becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Retires from the Princeton Institute but continues to maintain an office there until his death. The next year he becomes chairman of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.
He undergoes an exploratory laparotomy operation at the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital where it is discovered that he has a large aneurysm of the abdominal aorta.
Pens a letter to Berttrand Russell agreeing to sign a joint manifesto urging all nations to renounce nuclear weapons. It becomes known as the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, and leads to the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs.
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