Millikan was born in Morrison, Illinois, on March 22, 1868. He grew up in a number of communities in the Mississippi River region, leading a largely rural life. At the age of fourteen, he took a job in a barrelhead factory at wages of one dollar a day.

After graduation from high school in 1885, Millikan worked briefly as a court reporter before entering Oberlin College in 1886. In his sophomore year, Millikan was asked to teach a course in physics, a somewhat peculiar request since he had little interest and only one twelve-week course in the subject. However, he needed the salary the job paid and so accepted the offer. He then spent the summer teaching himself physics.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from Oberlin in 1891, Millikan stayed on to teach physics. Then, in 1893, he received a fellowship to do graduate study in physics at Columbia University. When he enrolled at...