According to any standard physics textbook,it was the "ultraviolet catastrophe" which led Max Planck to hypothesize about quanta.The problem was that the observed spectrum of a blackbody didn't match that predicted by theory--the Rayleigh-Jeans formula.One fine evening,he discovered the power of the energy quantization and the Quantum era began.This story was repeated recently in my physics class,and no doubt happens throughout the world. That,alas,is fiction.The fact,as always is far stranger.Planck,was in fact,a reluctant revolutionary In spite of its prominent role in physics textbooks, the the Rayleigh-Jeans formula played no part at all in the earliest phase of quantum theory. Its derivation was based on the equipartition theorem and Planck did not accept it as fundamental, and therefore ignored it. Incidentally, neither did Rayleigh and Jeans consider the theorem to be universally valid. Planck's role in the discovery of quantum theory was complex and ambiguous. To credit him alone with the discovery, as is done in physics textbooks, is much too simplistic.Apparently,Planck arrived at the hypothesis from a different direction.He didn't particularly like Boltzmann's statistical interpretation of entropy and instead considered the second law of thermodynamics to be absolutely valid.He even,for along time,doubted the reality of atoms.He was careful not to state exactly what was oscillating,in his derivation of his eponymous law of blackbody radiation. He wanted to determine thermodynamic irreversibility in terms of some model that did not explicitly involve the atomic hypothesis. He actually had two failed attempts,before he arrived at the correct law by "an act of desperation" as he called it. But the essence of quantum theory is energy quantization, and it is far from evident that this is what Planck had in mind.It seems the importance ascribed to his work is largely a historical reconstruction.Apparently, its basis in energy quantization was scarcely noticed.Planck tried hard to work around it.He initially assumed that energy quantisation applied only to emission of radiation and not to its absorption and transmission.He was of the opinion that his assumption was purely a mathematical trick and had no particular implication of a departure from classical physics.Only in 1911 did he recognize the fact that the quantum was here to stay. This is not to deny that Planck indeed took the first small step away from the classical picture.But the giant leap was taken by a certain someone who didn't like wearing socks. It was Einstein who first recognized the essence of quantum theory.In his annus mirabilis,he introduced the concept that radiation could only be absorbed in discrete amounts,in order to explain the photoelectric effect.Further,he worked on the quantum theory of the specific heats of solids.There is no doubt that Einstein,young as he was, saw deeper than Planck. (I also,found to my great delight,that Satyendranath Bose,was the one to provide a sound,alternative derivation of Planck's law,and in the process,forever enshrined his name in physics hyphenated with that of Einstein.And particles with integral spin are called bosons.) As I got more interested in this whole matter,I explored it in all books I could find,trying to resolve the confusion in my own mind.I don't like the way textbooks deal with the discovery of new theories and concepts,as they make it sound as if it was all dreamed up overnight.They obviously have to represent physics in a natural,ordered and coherent manner,in the interest of comprehensibility and this is understandable.But I believe it is equally important to highlight the often meandering ways by which scientists discover truths about nature;and not just draw a straight,directed line through history. Naturally,it was impossible not to get interested in Planck himself.I discovered to my great shock,that he suffered a number of personal tragedies towards the end of his life.His son died in action during WWI,and both his twin daughters died in childbirth.He stayed on in his native Germany throughout the war,but was blackmailed by the Nazis,to join their party.His son was sentenced to death,for trying to assassinate Hitler and the Nazis offered to spare him,if Planck would join the party.He refused,and his son was cruelly executed by the Gestapo.His house was bombed during WWII and he died,having spent the war,elderly and all alone,in some ramshackle old hut,in the German countryside,suffering from some terribly painful ailment. Einstein,really should be given equal credit along with Planck.How deeply ironical,then that this very Einstein,just more than decade later,was to turn against the quantum theory he had helped so much to conceive.