Marie Curie them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered in 1898 "polonium", after her native country. Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anemia from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I. Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in Congress Poland in the Russian Empire, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława, "née" Boguska, and Władysław Skłodowski. The elder siblings of Maria
Marie Curie she was welcomed triumphantly when she toured the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Mrs. William Brown Meloney, after interviewing Curie, created a "Marie Curie Radium Fund" and raised money to buy radium, publicising her trip. In 1921, U.S. President Warren G. Harding received her at the White House to present her with the 1 gram of radium collected in the United States. Before the meeting, recognising her growing fame abroad, and embarrassed by the fact that she had no French official distinctions to wear in public, the French government offered her a Legion of Honour award,