The Nobel Prize, named for the late Alfred Nobel, has honored men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace since 1901. Awarded each year, the prestigious prize is now worth $1.54 million.

In 1863, Nobel obtained the first patent on nitroglycerine as an industrial explosive, and developed and patented an igniter called a blasting cap for triggering the explosion. His brother Emil died in an 1864 explosion involving nitroglycerine preparation, and his factory in Hamburg, Germany, was destroyed by an explosion in 1866.

Nobel soon moved his experiments to a barge facility on the Elbe river, and discovered that when he added a compound to nitroglycerine to make it more stable, it created a clay-like substance that he called "dynamite." In 1867, he won the patent for dynamite and then built a successful company based on industrial explosives.

Nobel died on Dec. 10, 1896, and his last will and testament directed that his wealth be used to establish the Nobel foundation and prizes. Among the awards in the sciences and literature, the prize for peace garnered the most attention because part of his wealth came from the development of war weaponry and technology in the 1890s.

The peace prize ought to go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses," he wrote in his will.

"Alfred Nobel invented an explosive more powerful than any then known -- an exceedingly effective means of destruction. To atone for this 'accomplishment' and to relieve his conscience, he instituted his award for the promotion of peace," Albert Einstein said in 1945.