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In 1901, Wilhelm Röntgen received the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of X-rays. He was awarded the prize jointly with Henri Becquerel, who had discovered radioactivity in 1896. Röntgen's discovery of X-rays was a major breakthrough in physics, and it had a profound impact on the development of medicine. X-rays are now used in a wide variety of medical applications, including diagnosis and treatment of diseases.