Exactly 137 years ago - on 14 March 1879 - Pauline Koch gave birth to a boy whom she named Albert Einstein. Not considered to be smart or advanced as a child, Einstein went on to become the most brilliant scientist of his age. Some even say that we will never see the likes of another Einstein again.
Here's how a man, who "had no understanding of how to relate to people", became history's most beloved scientist.
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on 14 March 1879 to Pauline Koch and Hermann Einstein.
Pauline Koch, mother of Albert Einstein, Unknown, Wikimedia.
Albert Einstein was the elder of two - his younger sister, Maria Einstein, was born about two years later in November 1881.
Einstein reportedly was slow in learning how to talk. That, combined with his tendency to whisper words softly to himself before saying them aloud led the family maid to nick name him "der Depperte" - the dopey one.
Einstein's parents were concerned about his intelligence because he was slow to learn to speak.
Einstein at age 3. Unknown, Wikimedia
One year after Einstein was born, his father, mother, and uncle moved to Munich - to establish an electrical engineering company - where Einstein earned the bulk of his early education.
The secondary school he attended was eventually named after him and called the Albert Einstein Gymnasium before merging with another school in 2010.
Einstein developed a passion for music in his early teens.
Einstein at age 14, Uploaded by Quibik on Wikipedia
Einstein began violin lessons at age 5 but didn't enjoy music until age 13, when he discovered Mozart's violin sonatas. After that, the young genius was hooked and would play the violin in string quartets later as a young adult and throughout the rest of his life.
"Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe itself," Einstein later told a friend.
He wrote his first scientific paper as a teenager.
A 14-year-old Einstein with his sister Maria. Uploaded by Materialscientist on Wikipedia
Originally, Einstein was destined to take over the family business, but when it failed in 1894, Einstein's family moved to northern Italy.
It was there in Italy, that a teenage Einstein wrote what today is referred to as his first scientific paper, which investigated the nature of the ether - a hypothetical consequence of how light travels through space that Einstein later disproved. Before his death, Einstein published a total of more than 300 scientific papers.
At age 21, Einstein earned his physics teaching diploma.
This photo of Einstein's final scores shows that he scored a 6, the highest possible score, in 5 out of 14 subjects. Uploaded by Schutz on Wikipedia
Einstein graduated with his teaching diploma from the Zürich Polytechnic, Switzerland in 1900. Though Einstein showed exceptional skill in his theoretical physics courses, he scored lower in his math courses.
"It was not clear to me as a student that a more profound knowledge of the basic principles of physics was tied up with the most intricate mathematical methods," an older, wiser Einstein later admitted.
Childhood family struggles ultimately led Einstein to be a socialist.
Albert Einstein, circa 1940. Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)
In 1902, Einstein's father died, leaving him to care for his mother and sister, which was incredibly difficult because he was unemployed.
Moreover, the family was in significant debt to Einstein's uncle. This financial strain, which was largely due to the failing business, is what ultimately led Einstein to favour the ideals of socialism over capitalism. In his later years, Einstein envisioned a single government to rule the globe.
At age 23, Einstein had his first child - out of wedlock.
Uploaded by André Koehne on Wikipedia
The same year his father died, Einstein fathered an illegitimate child with Mileva Marić, whom he'd met while at the Zürich Polytechnic, Switzerland.
Marić had been
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