November, 1931 - Deuterium discovered
by Urey.
February, 1932 - Neutron discovered
by Chadwick. (Existence of which was predicted by Rutherford).
December, 1934 - Artificial
radioactivity discovered by Joliot-Curie [with alpha particles] and Fermi when he irradiated uranium with neutrons and
produced the first transuranic element(and first fission reaction, though unknowingly at a time).
December, 1938 - Fermi Receives a
Nobeli prize for discovering transuranic elements. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann split the uranium atom by bombarding it with
neutrons, producing the elements Barium and Krypton.
1939 - Hans A. Bethe creates theory
about nuclear fusion. He suggested that much of the energy that Sun and other stars produce is the result from reactions in
which four hydrogen nuclei unite, forming one helium nucleus while releasing a large amount of energy.
August, 1939 -
Albert Einstein sends a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt. In this message he warns the president that
Nazi Germany is attempting to build a new weapon which was more powerful and more destructive than any weapon ever known
to mankind. That weapon is an Atomic Bomb. Practically the letter didn't have any influence, only after Pearl Harbor bombing
by Japanese, US goverment made serious corrections to his "nuclear strategy" which eventually formed as Manhattan project.
September 17, 1942 - Although
the Manhattan Project was officialy founded in august the real start was this day, when
Col. Leslie Richard Groves got his
assigmenet on this project.
July 16, 1945 - The first nuclear
explosion, conducted by US, in Almagordo, New-Mexico, during the Trinity test, the
device code named Gadget was detonated on the tower yielded 19 Kt and used Pu239. That was the logical end
of 20 Billion cost Manhattan project.
August 06, 1945 - US exploded nuclear
bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. The U235 gun-type bomb named
Little Boy, detonated at 8:16:02 a.m. at an
altitude of 1900 ft. In an instant 80,000 to 140,000 people were killed and 100,000 more were seriously injured. Yield 15Kt.
Delivered by B29 Bomber Enola Gay.
August 09, 1945 -
US exploded nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan. The bomb named
Fat-Man(special thanks to
Lino for the cool pic:) was detonated at 11:02 am. at an altitude of
1500 ft. Fat Man used Pu239 instead U235 and it was more efficient, implosion type
design. Of the 286,000 people living in Nagasaki at the time of the blast, 74,000 were killed and another 75,000
sustained severe injuries. Yield 21Kt. Delivered by B29 Bomber Bock's Car.
August 29, 1949 -
USSR detonated his first nuclear bomb Joe-1,detonation at the Semipalatinsk test site.
Yielded 22 Kt.
May 8, 1951 -
During the operation Greenhouse US exploded the first fusion device called
George on the atoll Enwetak. This was not a real
bomb that could be delivered by an airplane or missile. Yielded 225 Kt.
October 3, 1952 - UK first nuclear
detonation. Monte-Bello islands, Australia. The bomb called Hurricane was detonated on the ship.
October 31, 1952 - US exploded the
first real H-bomb. During the operation Ivy, Mike shot yielded 10.4 Mgt. Surface explosion.
August 12, 1953 - USSR detonated his
first fusion bomb, called Joe-4, on the tower, yielded 300 Kt.
March 1, 1954 - During the
operation Castle on the Bikini atol, US detonated the thermonuclear bomb Bravo. Yield 15 Mgt. It became largest thermonuclear device ever detonated by US.
Bravo was the first Teller-Ulam design where Lithium
deuteride was used as a fuel. Subsequently, that became a standard for all thermonuclear weapon designs, including USSR
nuclear weapons. Interestingly, the projected yield of the Bravo was only 4-6 Mgt. However during the explosion
unpredicted, large amount of tritium was formed because of the fast neutron fission of Li7, which in turn
increased the yield by some 250%. Unfortunately, Bravo
explosion created significant rediological problems around the testing area.
February 13, 1960 - France detonated
his first nuclear bomb in Algeria, Reggane Proving Grounds, this bomb - G Bleue yielded 70 Kt.
January 24, 1961 - Abother broken arrow. A B-52
strategic bomber flying from Saymore Johnson AFB suffers structural failure over North Carolina. 2 high yield, unarmesd
thermonuclear weapons are released as a result. Parachute deploys on one bomb, which lands safely on the tree, receiving
very little impact. Upon recovery examinators discovered that 5 out of 6 safety devices have failed. Realizing that only a
single switch prevented unprecendented nuclear disaster, strategic command proceeds to install additional safety devices on
all US nuclear weapons. Soviets were encouraged to follow as well.
October 30, 1961 - USSR broke the
moratorium on the nuclear tests and conducted the biggest explosion of the thermonuclear device.
The bomb called "Tzar Bomba" was air delivered (by Tu-95 Bear) and exploded in the
atmosphere over the "Novaya Zemlya", (island in northern part of Russia, its name translates - something like "New land" )
yielded 50 Mgt. For more info click here
June 20, 1963 - U.S./U.S.S.R. sign
'hot line' agreement.
August 5, 1963 - Limited Test Ban
Treaty signed.
October 16, 1964 - China detonated his
first nuclear bomb called "596", that yielded 22Kt.
January 17, 1966 - U.S. B-52 bomber
crashes near Palomares, Spain with 4 unarmed H-bombs. Recovered later, successfully.
September 24, 1966 - France detonated
his first H-bomb, Tuamoto Islands.
June 17, 1967 - China detonated his
first H-Bomb during the operation codenamed Test No. 6. Yield 3.3 Mgt.
May 18, 1974 - India detonates his
first nuclear bomb, that yields 15 Kt.
May 11, 1998 - India detonates 3
nuclear devices. By indian officials version 1 thermonuclear and 2 nuclear devices were detonated.
The device that Indian
goverment climed to be "Thermonuclear" was not an actual H-Bomb. In fact it was a boosted nuclear bomb and produced yield of
approx. 43 Kt.
Second device detonated that day was a fission bomb and it yelded 12 Kt, third one yielded < 1Kt.
On may 13 India detonated 2 more nuclear devices with total yield < 1 Kt.
May 28, 1998 - Pakistan officials claimed
to have detonated five simultaneous nuclear tests. All of them - boosted devices made with highly enriched Uranium. According
to Pakistan a total yield was in the range of 40 to 45 kilotons. India disagrees :) suggesting slightly different number - 10
to 15 kilotons. Using seismic information, U.S. intelligence has confirmed only two nuclear explosions on may 28, yield - 6
kilotons. Pakistan detonated an additional nuclear device two days later, on May 30. claiming that the yield was in the range
of 15-18 kilotons, but U.S. intelligence disagreed, bringing the 2 Kt. estimate.