Discovery of Radium

Date: December 26, 1898 • Location: Paris, France

At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium.

The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences.