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She was born on November 7, in Warsaw. She was the fifth child of Władysław Skłodowski, a high school teacher in Physics and Mathematics, and Bronisława Boguska, a teacher, pianist and singer. -
When she was ten years old, she went to boarding school and later moved to an all-girls institute. When she graduated, she could not enter a higher education institution because she was a woman, so she together with her sister Bronisława entered the clandestine “floating university.” a patriotic institution of higher education that admitted women students -
She continued her studies in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the University of Paris. -
She received her bachelor's degree in physics and began working in Professor Lippmann's industrial laboratory. -
When she didn´t work, she studied at the University of Paris and she obtained a second degree. -
She began with an investigation of the magnetic properties of various steels, commisioned by the Society for the Promotion of National Industry. -
After starting her career she met Pierre Curie and their passion for science brought them together. Pierre had a small laboratory and she used it to work. He proposed to her, she accepted it but she wanted to return to her city. They married on July 26, in Sceaux, in a simple wedding without a religious ceremony. -
Her daughter Irène was born. To support her family she began teaching at the Higher Normal School. -
In July, the couple jointly published an article announcing the existence of an element they called "polonium," after Poland -
In October, Marie suffered from inflamation in her fingertips. fingers, the first known symptoms of the lightning disease that would accompany her for the rest of his life -
On December 26, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they called "radium," derived from a Latin word meaning lightning. -
Marie was the first woman to be appointed professor at the Higher Normal School and her husband received a professorship at the University of Paris. -
On November 5, the Royal Society of London awarded the couple the Davy Medal, which is awarded annually to the most important discovery in the field of chemistry. -
The Curies were invited by the Royal Institution of Great Britain to give a speech on radioactivity, but she was prevented from speaking because she was a woman and only her husband spoke. -
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Marie Curie the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with her husband and Henri Becquerel, "for join research into the radiation phenomena discovered by Henri Becquerel." She was the first woman to receive such an award. At first, the selection committee intended to honor only Pierre and Henri, denying recognition to Marie for being a woman. Pierre said that he would reject the Nobel Prize if Marie's work was not also recognized. -
On April 19, Pierre died in an accident in Paris. While walking in the rain on rue Dauphine, he was hit by a horse-drawn carriage. -
International recognition for her work had grown much more and the Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This award was "in recognition of her services in the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this element." She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. -
She acquired X-ray equipment, vehicles and auxiliary generators and designed mobile radiography units and she became the director of the Radiology Service of the French Red Cross and created the first military radiology center in France. -
The President Warren G. Harding received her at the White House and symbolically gave her a gram of radium collected in the North American country. -
She visited Poland to participate in the build of the Radium Institute in Warsaw. -
She died on July 4 at the Sancellemoz sanatorium, near Passy (Haute Savoie), due to aplastic anemia, probably contracted by the radiation that she was exposed at her work. She is buried in the Paris Pantheon.