All times in UTC ·
Dashed edge = started before, or continues beyond, this day
Events on Friday 17 March 1905 1
1905The photoelectric effectLight behaves as packets of energySubmitted in March 1905, this paper proposed that light comes in discrete quanta, explaining why shining light on metal ejects electrons only above a threshold frequency. Einstein called it the only truly revolutionary thing he ever did. It won him the Nobel Prize sixteen years later.