Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879.  When he was younger, Einstein did not have the chance to enjoy a formal education.  Instead, Einstein’s uncle taught him algebra and while Einstein was home, he dedicated a good deal of time to practicing his math skills.  Around Einstein’s 14th birthday he took an interest in theoretical physics.  In 1896, Einstein was accepted into the Federal (No relation to the U.S. Government) Polytechnic School in Zurich, Switzerland.  He was a rather bad student he preferred to learn alone and, as a result, he rarely attended lectures. In 1905 at age 26, Einstein published his first major scientific discovery. 

In 1909, Einstein was hired as a professor at the University of Zürich.  Many of Einstein’s theories dealt with the relationship between mass and energy.  When World War I came about, Einstein strongly opposed it and decided to become a pacifist.  After the war ended Einstein toured Europe and the United States lecturing on theoretical physics.  He also won The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.  While on tour in California in 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and Einstein decided not to return to Germany for fear of being killed by Hitler’s anti-Jew movement.  During World War II Einstein remained a pacifist and after the war he worked hard to promote agreements limiting nuclear weapons.  He also once said that his only regret was that his work had been used to create the greatest weapons of all time.

Einstein had been a pacifist all of his life and he deplored war.  He also tried to negotiate treaties that restricted nuclear arms.  Einstein was a simple man, but his equation E=mc2 revolutionized the way we think about physics.  It has also brought the world into an era in which countries have the ability to destroy the earth as we know it.