This Day in History: First Nobel Prizes Awarded (Sunday, December 10th)

This Day in History: First Nobel Prizes Awarded.

December 10, 1901.

Named after Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, the prizes were awarded in the fields of peace, literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.

Having died five years earlier, Nobel had directed the creation of the prize to annually honor people who "have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”.

Along with other high explosives, Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite.

It is thought he created the Nobel Prize due to his regret over the uses of his inventions in war.

Notable winners of the prize are Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mikhail Gorbachev and Barack Obama.

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Today, the prize is regarded as one of the highest honors in the various fields.

It is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences