Nobel held more than 300 patents, but his claim to fame before the prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable

Dynamite, which became popular in construction, mining and the weapons industry, made Nobel a very rich man

Toward the end of his life, he decided to use his vast fortune to fund annual prizes `to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind`

The first Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were presented in 1901, five years after his death

In 1968, a sixth prize was created, for economics, by Sweden`s central bank. Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel, it`s always presented together with the others