鈾是1789年由德國化學家馬丁·海因里希·克拉普羅斯（Martin Heinrich Klaproth）發現的。 1841年，Eugène-MelchiorPéligot通過與鉀一起加熱四氯化鈾，分離出了第一批鈾金屬樣品。 Antoine Henri Becquerel在1896年通過使用鈾發現了放射性。

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. In 1841, Eugène-Melchior Péligot isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium. Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896.

241241是在1944年由Glenn T. Seaborg，Ralph A. James，Leon O. Morgan和Albert Ghiorso在芝加哥大學的冶金實驗室首次發現的。 它是在曼哈頓計劃期間通過用中子輻照生產的。 Bur於1945年由Burris Cunningham在芝加哥大學首次以純化合物的形式分離出來。

Americium-241 was first identified in 1944 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan and Albert Ghiorso at the metallurgical laboratory at the University of Chicago. It was produced by irradiating plutonium with neutrons during the Manhattan Project. Americium was first isolated as a pure compound by Burris Cunningham in 1945, at the University of Chicago.