October 19 – Happy Birthday, Marguerite Perey!

Posted October 19, 2020

Today's famous birthday was a French physicist, a student of Marie Curie, and the first woman elected to the French Académie des Sciences. 

(If you can believe it, Curie never was!!!)

One of Perey's biggest accomplishments was discovering the element francium. You may have guessed that the name, francium, was chosen because the element was discovered in France.

 

Francium (symbol Fr, atomic number 87) is really unstable, highly radioactive. Its half-life is just 22 minutes. That means that it only takes 22 minutes for half of a clump of pure francium to break down into astatine, radium, and/or radon (depending on the isotope - the number of neutrons - in the francium).

Also on this date:

Samora Machel Day in Mozambique 

Constitution Day in Niue

Bettara-Ichi – Pickle Fair in Tokyo 

Anniversary of a Venus Fly-by

Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck's birthday

Wear It Pink Day in the U.K.

Anniversary of Heidelberg University's first lecture

Plan ahead:

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• October holidays
• October birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in October
  
  

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• November holidays
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November