Marie Curie for Kids: Her Life and Scientific Discoveries
1859 g Pierre Curie is born on May 15 1867 g Marie Curie is born on November 7 1876 g Marie’s oldest sister Zosia dies from typhus 1878 g Marie’s mother Bronisława dies from tuberculosis 1884 90 g Marie works as a governess 1891 g Marie moves to Paris to attend the Sorbonne 1894 g Marie meets Pierre 1895 g Pierre and Marie get married 1897 g Irène Curie is born 1898 g Marie discovers polonium and later radium g Marie and Pierre begin working to isolate uranium salts 1903 g Marie earns her doctorate g Marie and Pierre share the Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel 1904 g Ève Curie is born 1906 g Pierre Curie is killed in a street accident g Marie becomes the first female professor with a chair position at the Sorbonne 1911 g Marie wins her second Nobel Prize this time in Chemistry TIME LINE vi
1912 g Construction on the Radium Institute begins 1914 g The Radium Institute is completed and World War I begins 1915 18 g Marie organizes and operates mobile radiology units during World War I 1921 g Marie and her daughters visit the United States to receive a gift of radium 1926 g Irène marries Frédéric Joliot 1929 g Marie visits the United States to receive a monetary gift to buy radium for a Polish radium treatment and research facility 1932 g The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute officially opens in Warsaw Poland 1934 g Irène and Frédéric discover artificial radioactivity g Marie dies of pernicious anemia in the French Alps on July 4 1935 g Irène and Frédéric win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of artificial radioactivity 1995 g Marie and Pierre are reburied at the Panthéon in Paris vii vii
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INTRODUCTION The fourth-class railway carriage clacked down the track as a young Polish woman in a threadbare coat crouched down on a folding chair in the middle of the train car her luggage gathered closely around her Though the landscape and car were dark in the night her soul was illuminated with excitement and an ticipation as the carriage made its way toward France She’d waited so long for this What would Paris be like Could she make it at the Sorbonne What would her future hold Her plan was to return home to Poland after graduation find a teaching po sition in her field spread ideas of liberation to her fellow Poles and hopefully see her beloved country become free once again So how could she have ever imagined the very different path her life would take and the dramatic events that would unfold How could she have foreseen the trials setbacks love heart aches and successes that awaited her at the other end of the track She didn’t realize that the journey she was beginning would lead her to becoming one of the world’s most important scientists ixix
