Nobel Facts

October 9, 2009

Nobel Prize fast facts

Posted: 07:38 PM ET

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Mishan Afsari
AC360°

Did you know…

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite? Yes, the famous scientist mixed nitroglycerine with kieselguhr and voila! The volatile liquid became a paste that was shaped into rods – a material Nobel patented as dynamite in 1867.

Only 12 women have won the Peace Prize? That’s 12 women out of 96 individual winners. The first woman given the award was peace activist Bertha von Suttner in 1906, only 5 years after they started giving the award.

Only one recipient has declined the prize? Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho was given the award jointly with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in their work on the Vietnam peace accord, but Le Duc Tho declined because of the continued situation in his country.

Two laureates were awarded the prize posthumously? In 1931 and 1961 the prize was awarded to people after their death, but since 1974 the Nobel Foundation changed the rules so that a nominee cannot get the prize posthumously unless they died after the announcement.

Winston Churchill actually won the Nobel Prize in Literature but not the Nobel Peace Prize?
In 1953 Churchill only won the prize for literature, although he was nominated for both prizes.

205 individuals were nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize? That, and 33 organizations.

The youngest laureate was only 32 years old? In 1976 Mairead Corrigan shared the prize with Betty Williams for their accomplishments as founders of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement.

Mahatma Gandhi is considered the “Missing Laureate?” Gandhi was nominated 5 times for the prize for his nonviolent efforts for India’s independence. The last nomination came just days before his assassination in 1948. He never received the Prize, and within the Nobel organization it remains a question as to why.

So, who’s your favorite laureate of all time?

2009 – Barack Obama 2008 – Martti Ahtisaari 2007 – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore 2006 – Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank 2005 – International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei 2004 – Wangari Maathai 2003 – Shirin Ebadi 2002 – Jimmy Carter 2001 – United Nations, Kofi Annan 2000 – Kim Dae-jung 1999 – Médecins Sans Frontières 1998 – John Hume, David Trimble 1997 – International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams 1996 – Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, José Ramos-Horta 1995 – Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 1994 – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin 1993 – Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk 1992 – Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1991 – Aung San Suu Kyi 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev 1989 – The 14th Dalai Lama 1988 – United Nations Peacekeeping Forces 1987 – Oscar Arias Sánchez 1986 – Elie Wiesel 1985 – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War 1984 – Desmond Tutu 1983 – Lech Walesa 1982 – Alva Myrdal, Alfonso García Robles 1981 – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1980 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1979 – Mother Teresa 1978 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin 1977 – Amnesty International 1976 – Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan 1975 – Andrei Sakharov 1974 – Seán MacBride, Eisaku Sato 1973 – Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho 1972 – The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund 1971 – Willy Brandt 1970 – Norman Borlaug 1969 – International Labour Organization 1968 – René Cassin 1967 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1966 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1965 – United Nations Children’s Fund 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. 1963 – International Committee of the Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies 1962 – Linus Pauling 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld 1960 – Albert Lutuli

1959 – Philip Noel-Baker 1958 – Georges Pire 1957 – Lester Bowles Pearson 1956 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1955 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1954 – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1953 – George C. Marshall 1952 – Albert Schweitzer 1951 – Léon Jouhaux 1950 – Ralph Bunche 1949 – Lord Boyd Orr 1948 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1947 – Friends Service Council, American Friends Service Committee 1946 – Emily Greene Balch, John R. Mott 1945 – Cordell Hull 1944 – International Committee of the Red Cross 1943 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1942 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1941 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1940 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1939 – The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section 1938 – Nansen International Office for Refugees 1937 – Robert Cecil 1936 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas 1935 – Carl von Ossietzky 1934 – Arthur Henderson 1933 – Sir Norman Angell 1932 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1931 – Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler 1930 – Nathan Söderblom 1929 – Frank B. Kellogg 1928 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1927 – Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde 1926 – Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann 1925 – Sir Austen Chamberlain, Charles G. Dawes 1924 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1923 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1922 – Fridtjof Nansen 1921 – Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lange 1920 – Léon Bourgeois 1919 – Woodrow Wilson 1918 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1917 – International Committee of the Red Cross 1916 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1915 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1914 – The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section 1913 – Henri La Fontaine 1912 – Elihu Root 1911 – Tobias Asser, Alfred Fried 1910 – Permanent International Peace Bureau 1909 – Auguste Beernaert, Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant 1908 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer 1907 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt 1905 – Bertha von Suttner 1904 – Institute of International Law 1903 – Randal Cremer 1902 – Élie Ducommun, Albert Gobat 1901 – Henry Dunant, Frédéric Passy