Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, to a Jewish family and showed signs of brilliance early on, despite speaking late. He faced challenges in his education and personal life but eventually became a renowned physicist, marrying Mileva Maric with whom he had three children. His groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, including the theory of relativity, significantly shaped modern science, and he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.