Einstein, Albert - 1879--1955, German-born Physicist.

    In 1905 a little known 26 year old clerk in the Swiss Patent Office shook the world of physics to its foundations. Between 1901 when his first paper was published and the end of 1904 he had five publications to his name. They gave little hint of what was to come.  A year later he had submitted and had published five new papers in the German Annalen der Physik, covering three topics: the photoelectric effect, brownian motion, and the special theory of relativity. A century later Einstein's annus mirabilis is being celebrated throughout the world.

And on his death in 1955 the Washington Post's political cartoonist Herblock produced this tribute

[Note - January 27, 2005): Denis Overbye in the January 25 New York Times reports on some of the events scheduled for "Einstein's Year".]