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June 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt launches the age of atomic weapons with the signing of the Manhattan Project. |
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Dec. 2, 1942
University of Chicago scientists achieve the first man-made nuclear chain reaction. It is a breakthrough to the creation of a nuclear bomb. |
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July 16, 1945
The United States conducts a successful test of the first atomic bomb at the Trinity site on Alamagordo Air Force Base, N.M. |
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Aug. 6, 1945
Hoping to bring an end to World War II in the Pacific theater, the United States sends the B-29 bomber Enola Gay to drop the "Little Boy" nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, releasing a force equal to 15 kilotons of explosive. About 75,000 people are killed. |
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Aug. 9, 1945
The United States drops a second nuclear bomb on Japan. The "Fatman" bomb, dropped on Nagasaki by the B-29 bomber Bock's Car, explodes with the force of 22 kilotons of explosive and kills about 40,000 people. Japan surrenders five days later. |
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Aug. 29, 1949
The Soviet Union successfully tests its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk. The detonation shocked the United States and ended its monopoly on being the sole nuclear weapons power. |
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Nov. 1, 1952
The United States tests its first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok lagoon in the Marshall Islands, which sit in the South Pacific. It has 700 times the power of "Little Boy." The Soviet Union tests its first hydrogen bomb almost one year later. |
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Sept. 30, 1954
The USS Nautilus, the first American nuclear powered submarine, is launched. |
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July 29, 1957
The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency is created. The agency inspects nuclear reactors and plants to ensure they are being run for peaceful purposes. |
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Aug. 26, 1957
The Soviet Union announces the successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. |
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July 20, 1960
The United States submarine USS George Washington successfully launches a Polaris missile from under water. |
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Oct. 22-28, 1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis keeps the world on edge as the United States and the Soviet Union come to the closest ever to starting a nuclear war. The standoff is dissolved as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev removes the nuclear-armed missiles from the communist Cuba. |
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Aug. 5, 1963
The United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to prohibit nuclear weapon tests in space, above ground and under water. |
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July 1, 1968
The United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The agreement limits the spread of military nuclear technology to non-nuclear nations wishing to build or acquire atomic weapons. |
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March 14, 1969
President Richard M. Nixon announces the decision to deploy a missile defense system called "Safeguard" to protect U.S. ICBM fields from attack. |
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