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Uranium history
Dates and Milestones in the History of Uranium Research
1789 — German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovers uranium mistakenly assuming uranium dioxide to be pure metal. Calls it after the planet Uranus.
1841 — French chemist Eugène Péligot isolates the first sample of uranium metal.
1896 — French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel by accident discovers radioactivity of uranium.
1934 — French researchers Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie discover artificial radioactivity phenomenon.
early 1939 — German physicists Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner perform the first experiments with artificial uranium nuclear fission.
March 1939 — Frederic Joliot-Curie receives a chain reaction effect as a result of exposure of U235 isotope to neutrons.