The first Nobel Prizes ceremony was held in 1901.
The prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor, engineer, and industrialist who died in 1896. Nobel directed that most of his fortune fund annual awards for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and work toward peace.
The inaugural prizes were awarded on 10 December 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel’s death. The first laureates included Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Physics, Jacobus Henricus van ’t Hoff in Chemistry, Emil von Behring in Physiology or Medicine, Sully Prudhomme in Literature, and Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy for Peace.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was added later, in 1969, so it was not part of the original five categories.