Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany and later became a renowned physicist, graduating from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and earning a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich. He is famous for his 1905 papers and the equation E=mc², which established him as a symbol of genius following the confirmation of his theories during a 1919 eclipse. Later in life, Einstein faced political upheaval, moved to the U.S., wrote urging the development of the atomic bomb, and remained an active political figure until his death in 1955.