Nobel Prize Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize. In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize". The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van 't Hoff. Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics. The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature.
Jean Mounet-Sully in collaboration with Pierre Barbier, "La Vieillesse de Don Juan" in verse. He was the brother of the actor Paul Mounet. His daughter was the actress Jeanne Sully. He was a good friend, co-performer, and one-time lover of famed actress Sarah Bernhardt. Jean Mounet-Sully Mounet-Sully (February 28, 1841 – 1916), a French actor, was born at Bergerac. His birth name was Jean-Sully Mounet: "Mounet-Sully" (without the "Jean") was a stage name. He entered the Conservatoire at the age of twenty-one, where he took first prize for tragedy. In 1868 he made his debut at the Odéon without attracting much attention.