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Lecture 1b
Terry A. Ring
http://www.onlineeducation.net/resources/nuclear-history-timeline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_nuclear_weapons_development
Pre 1940s
During the 1930's three totalitarian, militaristic powers had arisen in the world--Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Germany, under Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and
Britain and France declared war upon Germany and its allies two days later. By the summer of 1940, the Nazi
Blitzkrieg, or lightening war, had rolled over Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, giving
Germany control of most of western Europe. Italy declared war in June 1940, and invaded British and French
Somaliland, Egypt, and Greece later that summer. Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, making
them allies, in September 1940. In the Far East, Japan had marched through China, reaching French Indochina
(now Vietnam) by July 1941.
1895 -Wilhelm Roentgen discovers x-rays. The world immediately appreciates their medical potential. Within five
years, for example, the British Army is using a mobile x-ray unit to locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers
in the Sudan.
1898 - Marie Curie discovers the radioactive elements radium and polonium.
1905 - Albert Einstein develops theory about the relationship of mass and energy.
1911 - Georg von Hevesy conceives the idea of using radioactive tracers. This idea is later applied to, among
other things, medical diagnosis. Von Hevesy wins the Nobel Prize in 1943.
1927 -Herman Blumgart, a Boston physician, first uses radioactive tracers to diagnose heart disease.
July 4, 1934 Leo Szilard filed the first patent application for the method of producing a nuclear chain reaction aka
nuclear explosion
December 1938 - Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrate nuclear fission.
August 1939 - Albert Einstein sends a letter to President Roosevelt informing him of German atomic research
and the potential for a bomb. This letter prompts Roosevelt to form a special committee to investigate the military
implications of atomic research.
Marie Curie
Leo Szilard
1940s
December 1941 - Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. The United States enters World War I
September 1942 - The Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans.
November 1942 - Los Alamos is selected as the site for an atomic bomb laboratory. Robert Oppenheimer is named the director.
December 1942 - Fermi demonstrates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a lab under the squash court at the University of
Chicago. Soon after, a complex of top-secret nuclear production and research facilites are built by the Manhattan Project across the
country.
1942-45 - The Clinton Engineer Works is built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It is renamed the Oak Ridge National Laboratory after World
War II. The Clinton Pile, the first true plutonium production reactor, begins operation in November 1943. By March 1945, K-25 and other
gaseous diffusion plants are in operation.
1943-45 - The Hanford Site is built in Richland, Washington by the Manhattan Project to produce plutonium. The first reactor begins
operation in September 1944.
February 1945 - Yalta Summit ratifies a divided postwar Europe.
April 1945 - U.S. troops liberate Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.
May 1945 - Germany surrenders.
July 1945 - The United States explodes the first atomic device at a site near Alamagordo, New Mexico.
August 1945 -The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders.
March 1946 - Winston Churchill proclaims an "iron curtain" has come down across Europe.
July 1946 - Atomic Energy Act (AEA) is passed, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC replaces the Manhattan
Project on December 31, 1946. The AEA places further development of nuclear technology under civilian (not military) control.
July 1946 - The United States tests a nuclear bomb on Bikini Atoll, an island in the Pacific. Four days later bikini swimsuit debuts at a
French fashion show.
August 1946 - The Oak Ridge facility ships the first nuclear reactor-produced radioisotopes for civilian use to the Barnard Cancer
Hospital in St. Louis. After World War II, Oak Ridge turns out numerous inexpensive radioactive compounds for medical diagnosis and
treatment, and for research and industrial applications.
April-May 1948 - Nuclear tests in the South Pacific (Operation Sandstone) pave the way for mass production of weapons that previously
had to be assembled by hand. By late 1948, the United States has 50 nuclear bombs.
June 1948 - The Soviet Union begins the Berlin Blockade, cutting West Berlin off from the West. The United States begins vast airlift to
keep Berlin supplied with food and fuel.
May 1949 - National Chinese forces led by Chiang Kai-shek retreat from mainland China to Formosa.
August 1949 - The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic device.
Nuclear Chain Reaction
This drawing depicts the historic December 2, 1942, event
The first successful test of an atomic bomb
Alamogordo, New Mexico, July 16, 1945
Hiroshima
Little Boy U235
Atomic Bomb
The atomic bomb that
destroyed Hiroshima.
Hiroshima after Blast
Nagasaki
Map of worst
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