July 16, 1945: Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age
The Trinity test showed that the atomic bomb worked. An eyewitness to the awesome explosion called it "unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous and terrifying."
Courtesy Los Alamos National Lab
1945: The first atomic bomb is tested successfully at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in a remote section of desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The instant the bomb detonated at 5:30 a.m. that Monday, the atomic age was born, and the world changed forever.
The Trinity test, as it was known, was the culmination of the American effort to win the race against Germany (and, ultimately, the Soviet Union) in building an atomic bomb. A mere three weeks after the test, the United States used atomic bombs to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
quotes Oppenheimer, then near the end of his life:
Our government should have acted with more foresight and clarity in telling the world and Japan what the bomb meant.
clipped from physiciansforhumanrights.org
clipped from brokenlives.info
