Alfred Nobel's Birthday
Next: October 21, 2027
From dynamite to the Peace Prize.
The story
Where it comes from
Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on 21 October 1833, and this Story marks his birthday. A chemist, engineer and inventor, he found a safer way to handle nitroglycerine, patented dynamite in 1867 and built factories in some 90 places. He stayed close friends with Bertha von Suttner, a leading peace campaigner. When he died in 1896, his will left much of his fortune to prizes for those who had done the most for humanity in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.
How it's celebrated
There is no public holiday, but his birthday comes just after the year's Nobel Prizes are announced in early October, which makes it a good day to read about a new laureate. The Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, whose exhibition 'The Will to Change the World' tells his story, welcome visitors all year. Teachers can use the day to ask a simple question: what would you give a prize for?
Did you know
- By the age of 17 he could speak and write Swedish, Russian, French, English and German, and he held 355 patents when he died.
- The prizes are presented every year on 10 December, the anniversary of his death.
- In 1913 the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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- United Nations Day · October 24, 2027
- World Pasta Day · October 25, 2027
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