December 10, 1901: The 1st Nobel Prize Ceremony

December 10, 1901: The 1st Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm, Sweden, on the 5th Anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm. An engineer and inventor, his 355 patents included dynamite, in 1867. But he also founded a company that made military armaments and parts therefor.

There is a well known story about the origin of the Nobel Prize, although historians have been unable to verify it, and some dismiss the story as a myth. The story is as follows: In 1888, his brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes, on the French Riviera. A local newspaper mistook him from Alfred, and published an obituary that spread, first throughout France, then throughout Europe, condemning him, saying, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday," and, "The merchant of death is dead."

Alfred realized that this was how people thought of him, and decided to change that. With no wife or children to leave his fortune to (though he was straight), he changed his will to found the Nobel Foundation, to annually award the Nobel Prizes, without distinction of nationality. He died on December 10, 1896.

A committee in Nobel's native Sweden awards the Prizes in the categories of Physiology or Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, Economic Science, and Literature. Another, in Norway, awards the Nobel Prize for Peace, although that is frequently given to someone involved in great humanitarian causes, rather than for efforts in stopping a war or maintaining a peace.

Marie Curie was the 1st female winner, for Physics in 1903. The 1st American winner was Theodore Roosevelt, for Peace in 1906. The 1st Asian winner was Rabindranath Tagore of India, for Literature in 1913. The 1st Hispanic winner was Carlos Saavedra Lamas of Argentina, for Peace in 1936. The 1st black winner was Ralph Bunche, for Peace in 1950; 10 years later, Albert Luthuli of South Africa was the 1st black African Nobel laureate, also for Peace.

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December 10, 1901 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Basketball barely existed. And hockey had not yet turned professional. So there were no scores on this historic day.