The world's most prestigious prize, awarded for the ‘preservation of peace’. It goes back to the legacy of Alfred Nobel (b. 1833, d. 1896), who wanted to use his fortune, made by his invention of dynamite, for the good of humanity through the creation of a Nobel Foundation. This would use the interest accruing from his legacy to finance a prize for physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace. While the first four prizes are awarded in Sweden, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on Nobel's birthday (10 December) in Oslo, by the King of Norway, the winner being chosen by a committee made up of five members of the Norwegian Parliament.
Table 16. Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901–1995
Date | Winner | Country |
1901 | Henri Dunant (b. 1828, d. 1910) | Switzerland |
| Frederic Passy (b. 1822, d. 1912) | France |
1902 | Elie Ducommun (b. 1833, d. 1906) | Switzerland |
| Charles Albert Gobat (b. 1843, d. 1914) | Switzerland |
1903 | William Randal Cremer (b. 1838, d. 1908) | UK |
1904 | Institute for International Law | |
1905 | Bertha von Suttner (b. 1843, d. 1914) | Austria |
1906 | Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1858, d. 1919) | USA |
1907 | Ernesto T. Moneta (b. 1833, d. 1918) | Italy |
| Louis Renault (b. 1843, d. 1918) | France |
1908 | Klas P. Arnoldson (b. 1844, d. 1916) | Sweden |
| Frederik Bajer (b. 1837, d. 1922) | Denmark |
1909 | Auguste M. France Beernaert (b. 1829, d. 1912) | Belgium |
| Paul Baron D'Estournelles (b. 1852, d. 1924) | France |
1910 | International Permanent Secretariat for Peace, Bern | |
1911 | Tobias M. C. Asser (b. 1838, d. 1913) | Netherlands |
| Alfred Hermann Fried (b. 1864, d. 1921) | Austria |
1912 | Elihu Root (b. 1845, d. 1937) | USA |
1913 | Henri La Fontaine (b. 1854, d. 1943) | Belgium |
1914 | — | |
1915 | — | |
1916 | — | |
1917 | International Red Cross Committee | |
1918 | — | |
1919 | Woodrow Wilson (b. 1856, d. 1924) | USA |
1920 | Leon Victor Bourgeois (b. 1851, d. 1925) | France |
1921 | Hjalmar Branting (b. 1860, d. 1925) | Sweden |
| Christian Lange (b. 1869, d. 1938) | Norway |
1922 | Fridtjof Nansen (b. 1861, d. 1930) | Norway |
1923 | — | |
1924 | — | |
1925 | Joseph Austen Chamberlain (b. 1863, d. 1937) | UK |
| Charles Gates Dawes (b. 1865, d. 1951) | USA |
1926 | Aristide Briand (b. 1862, d. 1932) | France |
| Gustav Stresemann (b. 1878, d. 1929) | Germany |
1927 | Ferdinand Buisson (b. 1841, d. 1932) | France |
| Ludwig Quidde (b. 1858, d. 1941) | Germany |
1928 | — | |
1929 | Frank Billings Kellogg (b. 1856, d. 1937) | USA |
1930 | Nathan Soederblom (b. 1866, d. 1931) | Sweden |
1931 | Jane Addams (b. 1860, d. 1935) | USA |
| Nicholas Murray Butler (b. 1862, d. 1947) | USA |
1932 | — | |
1933 | Norman Angell (b. 1874, d. 1967) | UK |
1934 | Arthur Henderson (b. 1863, d. 1935) | UK |
1935 | Carl von Ossietzky (b. 1889, d. 1938) | Germany |
1936 | Carlos Saavedra Lamas (b. 1878, d. 1959) | Argentina |
1937 | Edgar Algernon R. Cecil of Chelwood (b. 1864, d. 1958) | UK |
1938 | International Nansen Bureau for Refugees | |
1939 | — | |
1940 | — | |
1941 | — | |
1942 | — | |
1943 | — | |
1944 | International Red Cross Committee | |
1945 | Cordell Hull (b. 1871, d. 1955) | USA |
1946 | Emily G. Balch (b. 1867, d. 1961) | USA |
| John R. Mott (b. 1865, d. 1955) | USA |
1947 | Society of Friends (Quakers) | |
1948 | — | |
1949 | John Boyd Orr (b. 1880, d. 1971) | UK |
1950 | Ralph Bunche (b. 1904, d. 1971) | USA |
1951 | Leon Jouhaux (b. 1879, d. 1954) | France |
1952 | Albert Schweitzer (b. 1875, d. 1965) | France |
1953 | George C. Marshall (b. 1880, d. 1959) | USA |
1954 | UN High Commission for Refugees | |
1955 | — | |
1956 | — | |
1957 | Lester Bowles Pearson (b. 1897, d. 1972) | Canada |
1958 | Dominique Georges Pire (b. 1910, d. 1969) | Belgium |
1959 | Philip J. Noel-Baker (b. 1889, d. 1982) | UK |
1960 | Albert John Luthuli (b. 1899, d. 1967) | South Africa |
1961 | Dag Hammarskjöld (b. 1905, d. 1961) | Sweden |
1962 | Linus Pauling (b. 1901, d. 1994) | USA |
1963 | International Red Cross Committee | |
| League of Red Cross Organizations | |
1964 | Martin Luther King (b. 1929, d. 1968) | USA |
1965 | UNICEF | |
1966 | — | |
1967 | — | |
1968 | René Cassin (b. 1887, d. 1976) | France |
1969 | International Labour Organization (ILO) | |
1970 | Norman Ernest Borlaug (b. 1914) | USA |
1971 | Willy Brandt (b. 1913, d. 1992) | Germany |
1972 | — | |
1973 | Henry Alfred Kissinger (b. 1923) | USA |
| Le Duc Tho (b. 1910, d. 1990) | Vietnam |
1974 | Sean MacBride (b. 1904, d. 1988) | Ireland |
| Satô Eisaku (b. 1901, d. 1975) | Japan |
1975 | Andrey Sakharov (b. 1921, d. 1989) | USSR |
1976 | Mairead Corrigan (b. 1944) | UK |
| Betty Williams (b. 1943) (Peace People) | UK |
1977 | Amnesty International | |
1978 | Menachem Begin (b. 1913, d. 1992) | Israel |
| Mohammad Anwar al-Sadat (b. 1918, d. 1981) | Egypt |
1979 | Mother Teresa (b. 1910) | India |
1980 | Adolfo Peréz Esquivel (b. 1931) | Argentina |
1981 | UN High Commission for Refugees | 1982 |
| Alfonso Garcia Robles (b. 1911, d. 1991) | Mexico |
| Alva Myrdal (b. 1902, d. 1986) | Sweden |
1983 | Lech Walesa (b. 1943) | Poland |
1984 | Desmond Tutu (b. *1931) | South Africa |
1985 | International Doctors for the Prevention of Nuclear War | |
1986 | Elie Wiesel (b. 1928) | USA |
1987 | Oscar Arias Sánchez (b. 1941) | Costa Rica |
1988 | UN Peacekeeping Forces | |
1989 | Dalai Lama (b. 1935) | Tibet |
1990 | Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) | USSR |
1991 | Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945) | Myanmar |
1992 | Rigoberta Menchu (b. 1959) | Guatemala |
1993 | Frederik Willem de Klerk (b. 1936) | South Africa |
| Nelson Mandela (b. 1918) | South Africa |
1994 | Yitzhak Rabin (b. 1922, d. 1996) | Israel |
| Shimon Peres (b. 1923) | Israel |
| Yasir Arafat (b. 1929) | Palestine |
1995 | Joseph Rotblat (b. 1909) | UK |
| Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs | Canada |
1996 | Carlos Felipe Ximénes Belo | East Timor |
| José Ramos Horta | East Timor |
1997 | International Campaign for the Banning of Landmines | USA |
| Jody Williams | USA |
1998 | John Hume | Northern Ireland |
| David Trimble | Northern Ireland |
1999 | Médecins Sans Frontières | Belgium |
2000 | Kim Dae-Jong | South Korea |
2001 | Kofi Annan and United Nations Organization | Ghana |
2002 | Jimmy Carter | USA |
2003 | Shirin Ebadi | Iran |
