26 SEPT 2026History
What time did Einstein die? 18 April 1955, 01:15 in Princeton
Albert Einstein died at Princeton Hospital at 01:15 on 18 April 1955, aged 76. In UTC that was 06:15. His last words were in German, and nobody in the room understood them.
Short answer: Albert Einstein died at 01:15 on 18 April 1955 at Princeton Hospital, New Jersey. Princeton was on Eastern Standard Time, five hours behind UTC, so the minute in UTC is 06:15 on 18 April 1955.
The last days
Einstein had an abdominal aortic aneurysm that had been reinforced surgically years earlier. When it began to rupture in April 1955 he refused further surgery. He said he wanted to go when he wanted, and that it was tasteless to prolong life artificially.
01:15
He died in his sleep in the early hours. He had been working almost to the end — a draft of a speech for the anniversary of Israel's independence lay unfinished. He spoke a few words in German before he died; the nurse on duty did not speak German, and they were lost.
Afterwards
He was cremated the same day in Trenton and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place, as he had wished. The pathologist who performed the autopsy, Thomas Harvey, removed and kept the brain, which became its own long story.