Who won the first ever Nobel Prize in Physics?

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the first person to win the first ever Nobel Prize for physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays. Röntgen studied at the Polytechnic in Zürich and later on, he was a professor in the universities of: Strasbourg (1876–1879), Giessen (1879–1888), Würzburg (1888–1900), and Munich (1900–1920).

In 1895, when he was experimenting with the electrical current flow in a cathode–ray tube, Röntgen noticed a particular phenomenon: when the cathode–ray tube was in operation, a nearby piece of barium platinocyanide gave off light. Röntgen theorized that when electrons struck the glass of the tube, a particular unknown radiation traveled across the room, exerting fluorescence. This radiation affected photographic plates and it didn't follow reflection or refraction; Röntgen mistakenly deduced that these rays had nothing to do with light.

He took the first X-ray photographs of the bones in his wife's hand. In light of this uncertain phenomenon, Röntgen named it as "X-radiation". Soon, it became known throughout as Röntgen radiation.