Timeline December 1898

Events in December 1898 5

• 1898 Curies discover radium and polonium Marie and Pierre Curie identify two new radioactive elements Working with pitchblende ore, Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of polonium on 18 July 1898 and radium on 26 December 1898. Their work established radioactivity as a property of atoms rather than a chemical reaction, launching the field of nuclear physics. Marie Curie later won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry for this research.
• 1898 – 1995 Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) Died 24 August 1995, aged 96 Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German-American photojournalist for Life magazine best known for his photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day. Over a career spanning decades, he photographed numerous political and cultural figures. His work helped define the golden age of American photojournalism.
• 1898 Treaty of Paris ends the Spanish-American War Spain cedes Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris on 10 December 1898, ending the Spanish-American War. Spain relinquished Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. The treaty ended nearly four centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and Pacific.
• 1898 – 1990 Irene Dunne (1898-1990) American actress and singer, equally at home in musicals, melodramas and screwball comedy, with five Oscar nominations.
• 1898 Irene Dunne born in Louisville Irene Dunne is born in Louisville.