This Day in History: <br />First Nobel Prizes Awarded.<br />December 10, 1901.<br />Named after Swedish inventor <br />Alfred Nobel, the prizes were awarded <br />in the fields of peace, literature, <br />chemistry, physics and medicine.<br />Having died five years earlier, <br />Nobel had directed the creation of <br />the prize to annually honor people who <br />"have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”.<br />Along with other high <br />explosives, Alfred Nobel <br />was the inventor of dynamite.<br />It is thought he created the <br />Nobel Prize due to his regret <br />over the uses of his inventions in war.<br />Notable winners of the prize <br />are Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, <br />Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., <br />Mikhail Gorbachev and Barack Obama. .<br />Today, the prize is regarded <br />as one of the highest honors in <br />the various fields. It is awarded by <br />the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
