Science
A five-minute eclipse in 1919 turned Einstein into the world's most famous scientist
General relativity predicted that starlight passing near the sun would bend by a precise, measurable amount. Arthur Eddington tested it by photographing stars near the sun during the total eclipse of May 1919, from islands off West Africa and Brazil. The starlight shifted exactly as predicted — and when the Royal Society announced the result, Einstein went from a name physicists knew to a household one overnight.