Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879 and published his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905 which established that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference and that the speed of light in a vacuum is independent of the motion of all observers. He then published his General Theory of Relativity in 1915 which established that gravity is caused by the curvature of spacetime and that massive objects distort spacetime. Einstein's theories revolutionized physics and influenced many fields including astronomy, cosmology, and technology.