EXCLUSIVE: The Day Einstein Died

Einstein as we all know it, revolutionised our understand of science.

Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76.

I found these pretty cool images, which although are depressing, have just been recently released.

Enjoy!

Dr. Thomas Harvey (1912 - 2007) was the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Einstein at Princeton Hospital in 1955. The stranger-than-fiction tale of Einstein's brain -- which Harvey controversially removed during the autopsy, carefully sliced into sections, and then kept for years for research purposes -- and the intrigues long-associated with the famous organ, are far too convoluted to go into here.

However: on the day that Einstein died, Ralph Morse was able to take a few quick photographs of Dr. Harvey at the hospital. Morse says he's certain that that is not Einstein's brain under Dr. Harvey's knife in this never-before-seen picture. Then, after a pause, Morse qualifies that certainty: "You know, it was fifty-five years ago. Honestly, I don't remember every single detail of the day. So whatever he's cutting there ..." Morse's words hang in the air. Then, mischievously, he laughs.

What Albert Left Behind. One of the last moments of his study. Pretty unorganised, eh? Maybe that's the secret to his motivation


A never-published photo of Einstein's papers, pipe, ashtray, chalk, and other personal belongings in his Princeton office on the morning of April 18, 1955.

Apparently, the photographer , Ralph Morse, used a drink of scotch to the superintendant, to get into the office. Pretty slick, eh?


There in the coffin lies his body. Morse rushed to the a funeral home, where his body was being kept for an hour...then to Princeton Cemetary.



Pictured, from left: unidentified woman; Einstein's son, Hans Albert (in light suit); unidentified woman; Einstein's longtime secretary, Helen Dukas (in light coat); and friend Dr. Gustav Bucky (partially hidden behind Dukas) arrive at the Ewing Crematorium in Trenton on the afternoon of April 18, 1955.

"I drive out to the cemetery to try and find where Einstein is going to be buried," Morse remembers. "But there must have been two dozen graves being dug that day! I see a group of guys digging a grave, offer them a bottle, ask them if they know anything. One of them says, 'He ain't gettin' buried. He's being cremated in about twenty minutes. In Trenton!' That's about twenty miles south of Princeton, so I give those guys the rest of the case of scotch, hop in my car, and get to Trenton and the crematorium just before Einstein's friends and family show up."

Mourners walk into the service for Einstein, passing the parked hearse that carried his body from Princeton. "I didn't have to tell anyone where I was from," Morse says of his time spent photographing the events of the day. "I was the only photographer there, and it was sort of a given that if there was one photographer on the scene, he had to be from LIFE." At one point early in the day, Einstein's son Hans asked Morse for his name -- a seemingly insignificant, friendly inquiry that would prove, within a few hours, to have significant ramifications.

Well...some of the last moments of Albert.
For more images: click onto - www.life.com...




[edit on 26/4/2010 by BlackPoison94]

reply to post by BlackPoison94


Thanks for posting this BlackPoison ... Albert Einstein was/is one of my heroes ... what a man ... what a mind.

I love his quote that says;

'Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new'

He would be at the top of my wish list for - 'famous people in history I would have liked to spend a day with' !

Woody

I really like the fact that he also was a great philosopher, he said some great things.

And it seems he truly had regrets about the Atomic bomb.

If you can find it you should check the fictional movie Insignificance.

It's a wonderful gem of a movie that seems to take place in a parallel universe where Einstein meets Marilyn Monroe and they discuss the theory of relativity.

I really do admire this man...such knowledge, intelligence...it's not fair

Thanks Grey Magic...definitely check that out ^^

Yeah Woody...he has some fab quotes...and theories haha.

He would be at the top of my wish list for - 'famous people in history I would have liked to spend a day with' !

He'd been on my 'famous people in history I would have liked to spend my whole life with.'

Originally posted by Grey Magic
I really like the fact that he also was a great philosopher, he said some great things.

And it seems he truly had regrets about the Atomic bomb.

If you can find it you should check the fictional movie Insignificance.

It's a wonderful gem of a movie that seems to take place in a parallel universe where Einstein meets Marilyn Monroe and they discuss the theory of relativity.

I've seen that film it is brilliant ... certainly worth a watch ... in fact I might just find it and watch it again.

Woody

Einstein was cool, he was a prominent Jew who was against political Zionism and he also supported the idea of Socialism.

Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein (1949)

Not mention he was a genius.

[edit on 28/4/10 by ghostsoldier]