10th December
1901
FIRST NOBEL PRIZES
The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the
fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The
ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred
Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high
explosives.
In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be
placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually
distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the
preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on
mankind."
Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the
prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret
over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.