Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in the small town of Ulm, Germany, and grew up in the suburbs of Munich, where his father owned a small electrical factory. As a youngster, he showed very few signs that he would one day be called a scientific genius. He was very slow in learning to talk. He did so poorly at school that his teachers called him "dull and backward". That was one time the teachers were wrong.

Actually, Albert Einstein was extremely intelligent. By the age of 12 he had taught himself geometry and calculus—two difficult subjects usually taught in high school and college.

Einstein was fond of children, and often he would help a little neighbor girl do her arithmetic homework. The famous professor lived a quiet life. In the evenings he enjoyed chatting with friends or playing his violin. He deeply loved USA, where he had found peace and freedom, and in 1940 he became an American citizen.

In 1945 America exploded an atom bomb. Einstein himself wrote to Roosevelt to make him pay attention to the experiments of Fermi and Szilard, which were based on his formulas. He had not meant his work to lead to destruction and death. He urged all nations to unite in a peaceful world government to prevent further atomic wars and terrible suffering.

Einstein died in 1955 at the age of 76. He will long be remembered as a gentle modest man whose scientific genius opened up a whole new world of knowledge. His name will go down in history as one of the greatest thinkers who ever lived.