People in History

Marie was already young wife and mother, now it was a time to find a subject for doctorial thesis. She would become the first woman in Europe with PhD in Physics! Read the previous part: Maria and Pierre Curie: First Meeting, Love and Marriage .

The discovery of strange X-ray radiation by Rentgen, the radiation that showed bare bone in human hand became the most novel scientific curiosity. Henri Bequerel found that salts of uranium were also a source of this strange radiation. They made a mark on photographic paper without any access to the external light. So Marie naturally decided to follow up and investigate it. Pierre and Jacques Curie invented the electrometer (see the photo on the right) based on piezoelectric quartz that could detect very small amount of electricity. It was known that this strange radiation caused changes in the electric field, so Curies electrometer was a very suitable device to experiment with these strange and penetrating rays.

Read more: Discovery of Polonium and Radium

Read about Maria's studies in Paris

Maria received a grant from the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry to study magnetic properties of various steels. She began her research in prof. Lippmann's laboratory. She was in a search for better and less cumbersome equipment for a limited space she had to deal with to conduct her experiments.

Luckily, Joseph Kowalski, Polish professor from Fribourg University, was visiting Paris with his wife. Maria knew them from the time when she was a governess in Szczuki. They met again in Paris, Maria confined her problems, he thought that Pierre Curie may find a help. The next day Maria met Pierre Curie; they immediately developed an attraction. Pierre could not believe that he met a woman who is on equal intellectual level than he is. He used to believe that "women of genius are rare". Pierre was also curious about Maria's foreign roots, her patriotism and culture. Maria listened to his advices and his expertise in crystallography, magnetism and piezoleelectricity with interest. During this first conversation Pierre asked Marie whether she would remain in France. She replied with persistence in her voice that of course she would go back to Poland since this is her duty for an occupied countryland.

Pierre Curie came from a very interesting family of Alsatian origin (boarder region between France and Germany). His father and grandfather were medical doctors by profession but liberal intellectuals and scientists by choice. Pierre and Jacques, his older brother, were very smart, very curious and contributed to several scientific breakthroughs. Pierre was home-schooled, since he was brilliant, but unable to learn in school surroundings. Pierre had sworn never to get married; he devoted his life to science completely.

Pierre Curie with his parents: Eugene and Sophieand brother Jacques - on the photograph above.

Read more: Maria and Pierre Curie: First Meeting, Love and Marriage

Young Jack Kennedy and Poland

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. to be U. S. Ambassador to Great Britain in 1938, it seemed like a strange choice. Kennedy, patriarch of what was to become an American political dynasty, was an Irish Catholic with anti-British sentiments.

The elder Kennedy was also an admirer of Germany, England's long time nemesis. The ambassador was a staunch supporter of appeasement toward Hitler and thought highly of the fascist Generalissimo Franco of Spain. He favored sacrificing the "disposable countries" of East Central Europe to Germany in exchange for world peace and preservation of economic stability. Even after Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Kennedy continued to advocate for American peace feelers toward Hitler, something that FDR rejected out of hand.

Ambassador Kennedy's twenty-two year old son John, on leave from his studies at Harvard, was serving as his father's secretary in London during the summer of 1939 when the ambassador suggested he take a trip through Europe to see first hand the situation there, which was inexorably headed toward war.

Read more: Kennedy Family Relationship with Poland

General Casimir Pulaski died fighting in the American War for Independence on October 11, 1779. The U.S. Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia received word of the Pole's death and on November 29, 1779 passed a resolution to erect a memorial to honor the hero. Alas, no money was appropriated for it, due to the fact that the United States' finances were stretched so thinly in those early years.

    More than a hundred years passed. Around the turn of the 20th century, Polish Americans rediscovered the Pulaski Memorial resolution, and Polish American organizations petitioned Congress to again consider the issue. They were successful. An act of February 27, 1903 signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt appropriated $50,000 for erection of a statue of Pulaski in Washington, D.C.

Read more: Polish Heroes Honored in Washington D.C. in 1910