1879: Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany.

Perhaps the greatest physicist of all time, Einstein is most widely remembered for his theory of relativity (which contains the formula for mass-energy equivalence, E=mc², a visual flourish every bit as iconic as Beethoven’s “dum-dum-dum-DUUUM”). Talk about the tip of the iceberg.

Despite early speech difficulties, it was apparent to everyone that young Albert was more than your basic precocious kid. By the age of 12, he had mastered Euclidean geometry, moved on to calculus and possessed a solid grasp of deductive reasoning.

Still in his teens, Einstein wrote his first scientific paper, “The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields.” He got cocky and decided to skip the rest of high school. Still 16, he attempted to enroll in the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, but failed the entrance exam. He was forced to return to high school, graduating the following year.

He also renounced his German citizenship in order to avoid military service. (He did, however, help develop a gyroscope for use in German U-boats during World War I.) He reacquired his citizenship after accepting a professorship in Germany, then renounced it again after the Nazis came to power.

Einstein was working at the patent office in Bern, Switzerland, when he published his so-called Annus Mirabilis Papers, which only helped establish the foundation of modern physics by changing long-held views on space, time and matter.

From 1907 on, Einstein was developing his theory of general relativity, which posits that gravitation is not determined by force but is instead a manifestation of curved space and time. (Follow that link if you want to read more on the subject from people who actually understand it.)

Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work in theoretical physics.

Beyond science, though, Einstein was also a political man — and a paradox. He was a nonpious Jew who embraced a Spinozan view of God, yet became a passionate Zionist who worked tirelessly for a Jewish homeland. He loathed Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as he loathed all authority, yet enlisted in many communist-inspired organizations, partly because of his equal disdain for capitalism. He helped develop the atomic bomb, then — after Hiroshima and Nagasaki — became an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons.

After coming to the United States, Einstein denounced McCarthyism and racism with the same fervor that he criticized the Europeans for their various transgressions.

For all of those reasons, and perhaps in spite of a few of them, at the close of the 20th century Einstein was selected as Time magazine’s Person of the Century.

His birthday is Pi Day: 3.14.

Source: Various

This article first appeared on Wired.com March 14, 2007.