Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955) was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in the German Empire. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time. He is often regarded as the father of modern physics. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity and the founding of relativistic cosmology. In 1911, he had calculated that, based on his new theory of general relativity, light from another star would be bent by the Sun's gravity. That prediction was claimed confirmed by observations made during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. International media reports of this made Einstein world famous. In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1933, Einstein emigrated to the United States because of the rise to power of the Nazis and took up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein was persuaded to lend his enormous prestige to a letter sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, alerting him to the possibility that Nazi Germany might be developing an atomic bomb. On April 17, 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aneurysm. Einstein refused surgery, saying: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly". He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at the age of 76, having continued to work until near the end. To this day, Albert Einstein's legacy continues and he remains one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th, or any, century.
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