30 June 08

On this date in 1905, Albert Einstein published the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", where he introduced special relativity (explaining how motion near the speed of light affects the perceptions of space and time for observers in different frames of reference). This was the third of four major papers from Einstein that year, all in Annalen der Physik; on Sept. 27 came the publication of the famous equation stating the fundamental equivalence of mass and energy, E = mc².