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The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy by electromagnetic means was demonstrated by the British scientist Michael Faraday in 1821.
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While a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835, Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire.
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Los Alamos scientists successfully test a plutonium implosion bomb in the Trinity shot at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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The Atomic Energy Commission detonates the first thermonuclear device, code-named "Mike," at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific. The device explodes with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
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The U.S. launches the first nuclear reactor in space (SNAP-10A). SNAP stands for Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power
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The Yom Kippur War breaks out in the Middle East. October 17, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declares an oil embargo, sparking the first "energy crisis."
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The first pipe is laid on the Alaska Pipeline, which will move crude oil 800 miles through a 48-inch pipe from the North Slope of Alaska to the ice-free port of Valdez, Alaska. Construction is completed in two years.
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A major nuclear accident occurs at Chernobyl Reactor #4 near Pripyat, Ukraine in the Soviet Union, spreading radioactive contamination over a large area.
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The United States conducts its last underground nuclear weapons test. Congress imposes a temporary moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.
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Workers complete drilling of the five-mile long, horseshoe-shaped exploratory tunnel through Yucca Mountain at the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada.