The discovery of radioactivity

Erosophia Encyclopedia — an encyclopedia that cites its sources.

Entry
The discovery of radioactivity — The announcement, in 1896, of a radiation proper to uranium salts
Investigating whether the fluorescence of uranium salts depended on the sun, Becquerel left a photographic plate in a drawer with a salt: it was fogged all the same. He concluded that the substance emits its own radiation, which was called hyperphosphorescence, and announced it to the Académie. The word radioactivity came two years later, from the Curies. (Editorial synthesis)
The discovery of radioactivity took place on 2 March 1896. (source: Larousse)
The discovery of radioactivity ended in invisible rays emitted by uranium. (source: Encyclopædia Britannica)
← Ask the encyclopedia another question
Answers are drawn from a corpus established and verified by an editorial team; each one shows its source.
When a piece of information is not in that collection, the encyclopedia says so rather than inventing it — that principle is what makes every answer it does give trustworthy.