A Daily Dose of History

Alfred Nobel had the rare experience of being able to read his own obituary, and what he saw deeply distressed him.

A brilliant scientist, Nobel was a prodigious chemist and inventor. During his career he was awarded hundreds of patents, the most famous being for dynamite. Nobel was also a gifted businessman. He was especially successful as a manufacturer of explosives, and he amassed a great fortune in the weapons business, eventually owning 90 factories producing armaments.

In 1888 Alfred’s brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes, France. The local newspaper mistakenly believed it was Alfred who had died and it reported his death under the headline “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” The article went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

Seeing how he was going to be remembered horrified Alfred. He became determined to assure himself a different and better legacy.

So Alfred Nobel, who never married and had no children, used nearly his entire estate to create a foundation that awards annual prizes for distinction in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and (most famously) peacemaking. The Nobel Prizes are now generally regarded as the highest honor one can attain in those fields.

The man who seemed destined to be remembered as “the merchant of death” instead became the man best known as the benefactor of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 21, 1833, one hundred eighty-eight years ago today.