Polonium was announced in July 1898 by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie in Paris. Marie Curie was investigating why pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium it contained could explain, and the couple painstakingly separated its components by chemical means, tracking the radioactivity at each stage. They found a new element which was far more radioactive than uranium. Marie named it after her native Poland, which at the time was divided between the Russian, Austrian and German empires, as a way of drawing attention to its lack of independence. Polonium is extremely rare and intensely radioactive, and it emits alpha particles. It has been used in static eliminators and as a heat source for some space probes, and it is a very dangerous poison.
Before and after
- 1898Discovery of radium
- 1898Discovery of neon
- from 1898 to 1934Banana Wars
- 1898Discovery of krypton
- 1898Discovery of polonium
- 10 January 1898Birth of Sergei Eisenstein
- 14 January 1898Death of Lewis Carroll
- 3 February 1898Birth of Alvar Aalto
- 10 February 1898Birth of Bertolt Brecht
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.