aug 19, 1895 - Pierre (1859-1906) and Marie (1867-1934) Curie

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Contributions: Pierre and Marie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their work on radioactivity. Marie Curie became the first woman to be awarded the nobel prize and the first person to obtain two nobel prizes when she won the prize for the discovery of Polonium and Radium in 1911.
Though it was Henri Becquerel that discovered radioactivity, it was Marie Curie who invented the term. Using a device invented by her husband and his brother that measured extremely low electrical currents, Curie was able to note that uranium electrified the air around it. Further investigation showed that the activity of uranium compounds depended upon the amount of uranium present and that radioactivity was not a result of the interactions between molecules, but rather came from the atom itself. Using Pitchblende and chalcolite Curie found that Thorium was radioactive as well. She later discovered two new radioactive elements: Radium and Polonium which took her several years since these elements are difficult to extract and extremely rare. Unfortunately, the Curies died young. Pierre Curie was killed in a street accident and Marie died of aplastic anemia, almost certainly a result of radiation exposure.

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