This Day in History:
First Nobel Prizes Awarded.
December 10, 1901.
Named after Swedish inventor
Alfred Nobel, the prizes were awarded
in the fields of peace, literature,
chemistry, physics and medicine.
Having died five years earlier,
Nobel had directed the creation of
the prize to annually honor people who
"have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”.
Along with other high
explosives, Alfred Nobel
was the inventor of dynamite.
It is thought he created the
Nobel Prize due to his regret
over the uses of his inventions in war.
Notable winners of the prize
are Marie Curie, Albert Einstein,
Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Mikhail Gorbachev and Barack Obama. .
Today, the prize is regarded
as one of the highest honors in
the various fields. It is awarded by
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences