- Cared little for money. He once used a $1500 check as a bookmark and then lost the book.
- Was offered the Presidency of Israel but declined, having no political or ceremonial ambitions.
- Was reluctant to sign autographs, and charged people $1.00 before signing anything. He gave the money he received to charity.
- Considered himself as a loner and had very few friends during his lifetime.
- After his death, his brain was weighed and found to be 1.5 kg (2.64 lb). It is now preserved in a glass jar in Wichita, KS.
- An element, Einsteinium, is named after him.
- When he left Germany in 1933, the Nazis put a price of 20,000 marks on his head.
- His wife gave birth to their daughter, Lieserl, in 1902, a year before they married. They never spoke about her after 1903. It is assumed that she was adopted by a friend or family member. Some speculate that she died in 1903 from scarlet fever. Einstein never saw her.
- When told of a book entitled "One Hundred Authors against Einstein", he replied, "Why one hundred? If I were wrong, one would have been enough".
- Had Asperger Syndrome but wasn't diagnosed until it was discovered by Dr Hans Asperger in the late 1940s.
- His IQ has been estimated as falling between 160-180, which would signify genius intelligence. Einstein himself never took an IQ test.
- Became a US citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship.
- Said to have had parietal lobes 10% larger than would be expected for an average brain.
- His son Eduard suffered from a severe form of depression.
- Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 (for his discovery of the Photoelectric Effect).
- His second wife was also his cousin.
- Never learned how to drive a car.
- Did not want his body or brain studied or worshiped; he left specific instructions that upon his death, he was to be cremated and the ashes scattered in secret.
- Said to be a major fan of the legendary Robert Clampett cartoon series, Time for Beany (1949). It is also believed that he once ended a meeting with scientists by saying, "Pardon me, gentlemen, but it's Time for Beany!".
- He had two daughters with his second wife, Ilsa and Margot. He adopted them upon his marriage when they were both around 20 years old.
- Is reported to have kept several sets of the same outfit in his closet so that he could simply grab an outfit without having to think about what he wanted to wear. This quirk was later given to two characters played by Jeff Goldblum: Seth Brundle in The Fly (1986) and Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park (1993). The same quirk was parodied by Jim Varney's alter ego, Ernest, in a series of films.
- Wrote a letter in support of the Scottsboro Nine, a group of young African-American men in Alabama who got convicted of assault and rape in what was widely seen as an unfair trial. H.G. Wells and Thomas Mann also wrote letters in support of the young men.
- E=mc2 is Einstein's most famous equation, and it establishes a correlation between mass and energy (c is the speed of light) for the first time--later practically exemplified in the splitting of the atom and the inauguration of the exploration of atomic (nuclear) energy.
- Made a telephone call to comedian Sid Caesar, suggesting they meet to discuss the human condition. Unfortunately, the meeting never took place because Caesar thought they would have nothing to talk about.
- In December 1999 he was named "Time" magazine's Person of the Century.
- Inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in 2015 (inaugural class) in the category Historical Figure.
- Was an inventor and called mad in his time, even though he's thought of now as one of the greatest scientific minds who ever lived.
- Children with Maric: Lieserl (b. 1/1902), Hans Albert (b. 5/14/06), Eduard (born c. 1908).
- Referenced in the song 'The Call of the Wild (Merengue)' by David Byrne on his 1989 album, "Rei Momo".
- Steve Martin once wrote a stage play about a hypothetical meeting between Einstein and Pablo Picasso.
- Is a fifth cousin, three times removed, of Peter Berg. Albert's paternal four times great-grandfather, Moyses Einstein, was also Peter's maternal seven times great-grandfather.
- His name, interestingly enough, is German for "One Stone".
- In popular culture he has been mistakenly associated with the development of the atomic bomb (Manhattan Project). He only endorsed a letter written by Leó Szilárd on the eve of World War II, which warned Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger of Nazi Germany building atomic bombs. He was asked to endorse the letter because, with his celebrity status, he was well known outside scientific circles, while Szilard was not; such a letter would not otherwise have gotten the President's attention.
- Walter Matthau played Einstein in I.Q. (1994) even though he was a half-foot taller than the famous scientist.
- Pictured on the 8¢ US postage stamp in the original issue of the Prominent Americans series issued 3/14/66.
- Pictured on a 15¢ US commemorative postage stamp celebrating the centennial of his birth, issued 3/4/79.
- Philip Glass created an "opera" in 1976 called "Einstein on the Beach", inspired in part by Einstein's theories.
- Elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2007 for his services to science and history (inaugural election). Official induction ceremonies were held in May 2008.
- In 2000, DC Comics artist Ed McGuinness often used Einstein's formula as his signature, after illustrating a full issue of "Superman: The Man of Steel".
- E=MC² was also used in the opening sequence for The Twilight Zone (1959) with the caption, "A dimension of mind".
- Mentioned in the song "Einstein A Go-Go" by Landscape.
- Devised the theory of relativity.
- Has an Erdös-Bacon-Sabbath number of 11, which ties him with Natalie Portman and Adam Savage, and is among the lowest on the planet.
- Doc Brown, the eccentric inventor from the "Back to the Future" trilogy, has a pet dog named after Einstein.
- Producer Julian Blaustein cast Sam Jaffe as Prof. Barnhardt in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)) because of his resemblance to Einstein, who, at that time, was the most recognized scientist in the world. For years afterward, Blaustein, and director Robert Wise, would refer to Prof, Barnhardt as the "Einstein character".
- Mentioned in One World or None (1946).
- Lampooned on Rick and Morty (2013).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content