Today in History

July 01, 1946
The Angry Super Volcano
The United States begins testing atomic bomb testing on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. The fourth atomic bomb ever exploded, it emits a flash ten times brighter that the sun, but disappoints by only sinking two of the 73 test ships placed near the blast. A New York Times reporter watching writes that "it was an awesome, spine-chilling spectacle, a boiling, angry, super-volcano struggling toward the sky, belching enormous masses of iridescent flames and smoke and giant rings of rainbow."



Today's Feature History Article

Building the Bomb

A new book about atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer charts the secret debate over deployment of the first A-bomb and the anxiety that suffused its first live test




 



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