Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X - rays in November 1895 while conducting experiments with cathode rays , which marked a significant turning point in both medical imaging and the field of physics . He was honored with the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for this revolutionary discovery . Here ’s a deeper look into this captivating moment in scientific history : ð¬ The Accidental Breakthrough Röntgen was working with a Crookes tube , a kind of vacuum tube used to study cathode rays , in a darkened laboratory . He observed that a fluorescent screen located nearby started to glow , even though it wasn’t direc...