The first Russian Nobel laureate was the physiologist Ivan Pavlov in 1904 — honoured not for his famous conditioned reflexes but for his work on digestion.

1904

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The event

• First Nobel Prizes1901 · Stockholm. On 10 December 1901, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace were awarded for the first time under his will. The Nobel Prize became the most prestigious award in science and culture.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1903 · 1961 · 1969 Just 58 years separate the Wright brothers' first flight from Gagarin's, and 66 from the Moon landing — some who saw the first airplanes lived to see the Moon.
• 1903 The Wright brothers' first flight was shorter than a Boeing 747's wingspan: Orville covered 37 metres, while the first jumbo jet's wings spanned about 60.
• 1903 · 1969 Bits of the Wright Flyer have been to the Moon and Mars.
• 1903 Tsiolkovsky published his rocket equation in 1903 — the year the Wright brothers first flew.
• 1903 · 1913 Just ten years after the Wright brothers' first flight, a plane with a toilet took off. Sikorsky's four-engined Ilya Muromets of 1913 also had a heated cabin, a bedroom and electric light.
• 1904 · 1935 Monopoly grew out of a game against monopolies.

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