November 25, 1867
Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer, obtained his most famous patent, for dynamite. His fortune was used posthumously to institute the Nobel Prizes. Nobel had an epiphany when his brother died and a French newspaper mistakenly published his own obituary, headlining it Le marchand de la mort est mort (“The merchant of death is dead”) and went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” Most of his substantial fortune was dedicated to funding the five Nobel prizes. The first three of these prizes are awarded for eminence in physical science, in chemistry and in medical science or physiology; the fourth is for literary work “in an ideal direction” and the fifth prize is given to the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses.
