The Brief, Essential History of the Atomic Bomb - HISTORY

Explore the top-secret American project to build the world's first atomic bomb.

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President Harry Truman orders the Enola Gay to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Cy Young joined major league baseball, the first woman swims the English Channel, and Jamaican independence is declared in This Day in History video. The date is August 6th. The atom bomb was also dropped on Nagasaki which helped end World War II when Japan surrendered.

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In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 16, 1945, the United States conducted the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexican desert. The test was the culmination of three years of secret planning under the codename, The Manhattan Project. Scientists, soldiers, and officers assembled the observation huts, some as far as 10 miles away from ground zero. There was an intense flash of light, and then the a-bomb produced a fireball that expanded nearly 2,000 feet in two seconds; it boiled up into a mushroom cloud nearly six miles high.

Shots of a test nuclear explosion in Hawaii. | Courtesy of the Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office

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