By: HISTORY.com Editors

1953

President Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: May 28, 2025

In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S. Truman tells the world that that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.

It was just three years earlier on January 31, 1950, that Truman publicly announced that had directed the Atomic Energy Commission to proceed with the development of the hydrogen bomb. Truman’s directive came in response to evidence of an atomic explosion occurring within the USSR in 1949.

Timeline

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1785

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1789

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1891

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1892

Coal mine explodes in Oklahoma

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1927

Harlem Globetrotters play their first game

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1946

Serial killer with split personality murders 6-year-old in Chicago

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1955

Marian Anderson becomes first African American to perform at the Met Opera

On the evening of January 7, 1955, the curtain at the Metropolitan Opera in New York rises to reveal Marian Anderson, the first African American to perform with the Met. By then, Anderson was in the twilight of a career that was equal parts acclaimed and hamstrung by racism. First noticed by an aunt, who […]

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1959

United States recognizes new Cuban government

Just six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba, U.S. officials recognize the new provisional government of the island nation. Despite fears that Fidel Castro, whose rebel army helped to overthrow Batista, might have communist leanings, the U.S. government believed that it could work with the new regime and protect American […]

1979

Pol Pot overthrown

On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese troops seize the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, toppling the brutal regime of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge, organized by Pol Pot in the Cambodian jungle in the 1960s, advocated a radical Communist revolution that would wipe out Western influences in Cambodia and set up a […]

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1999

President Clinton’s impeachment trial begins

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2015

12 people die in shooting at “Charlie Hebdo” offices

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Citation Information

Article Title: President Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-7/truman-announces-u-s-has-developed-hydrogen-bomb

Date Accessed: October 29, 2026
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: May 28, 2025
Original Published Date: November 13, 2009

President Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb

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