Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac observes unusual…
1880 CE
Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac observes unusual spectroscopic lines (due, as it happens, to gadolinium) in samples of didymia and gadolinite.
In 1880, the Swiss inorganic and physical chemist separates the new rare earth, in metallic oxide form, from the mineral samarskite.