Curies Discover Radium
December 26, 1898
Pierre and Marie Curie, working in a leaking shed in Paris, announced the isolation of a new element two million times more radioactive than uranium. They named it radium. Marie would refine it, grain by grain, from tons of Bohemian pitchblende. Two Nobel Prizes and a fatal dose of exposure lay ahead.
In context
Also in 1898 (9 other events on record)
- Spanish-American War · North America · War
- Battle of Omdurman · Africa · War
- Hundred Days Reform Fails · East Asia · Politics
- J'accuse · Europe · Politics
- Hawaii Annexed · Oceania · Politics
- USS Maine Explodes · North America · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
- Before: 1897: Ross Links Mosquito and Malaria
- After: 1899: Aspirin Marketed
Era
Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.