It is reported that eight years earlier (1888) Nobel had seen a premature obituary of himself in a French newspaper. In it Nobel's invention, dynamite, was condemned. After reading his own obituary, he vowed to try to leave an improved legacy to the world.

Nobel set up five annual prizes: One each in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and the furtherance of international peace. A sixth prize in economics, funded by the Swedish National Bank, was added starting in 1969.

Nobel was born in Sweden in 1833, studied chemistry in Paris, and worked briefly in the USA before returning to his home country in 1859.

He developed what he thought was a safe and manageable form of nitroglycerin. It was called "dynamite." He built a factory to produce it. In 1864 an explosion in the plant killed Nobel's younger brother and four other people.

Nobel eventually invented a safer explosive as well as other inventions, including a mild steel for armor plating.

The first prizes-large cash awards-were given in 1901, five years after Nobel died at age 63. Over the years, the prizes have gone to both organizations and people, including Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Elihu Root (1912), Woodrow Wilson (1919), Jane Adams (1931), Cordell Hull (1945), Emily Balch (1946), and Martin Luther King (1964).