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Los Alamos, NM is chosen for the location of one of the bomb laboratories, nicknames Project Y, and Robert Oppenheimer is placed as the laboratory director there.
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-This discovery sent the allied powers into a panic as the possibility opened up of Germany using atomic weapons against other countries.
-This caused the US to prioritize its atomic research and prompted Einstein to suggest creating a committee to research nuclear power and weapons -
This event was the official start of the Manhattan project. Before, the project had been only an idea, but after Roosevelt approved it, it became a reality.
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A secret military project created to produce the first atomic weapons
-The directors were Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Grove
-The project cost over $2.2 billion and involved such scientists as Einstein and Fermi
The project would eventually be responsible for creating the atomic bombs that would be dropped on Japan during WW2
-The project would eventually disband and become of the US Atomic Energy commission -
Oak Ridge, Tennessee is selected as one of the locations for the project for the pilot production plant.
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Fermi, through intense research and trials, leads scientists to produce the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
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Hanford, Washington is selected as another key location for the project for the plutonium production facilities. Three reactors would eventually be built in Hanford.
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Robert Oppenheimer led the first controlled detonation of the atomic bomb at Trinity site near Alamogordo, TX.
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On this date, the American plane, the Enola Gay, dropped the first bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.In an instant, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized, and a legacy of destruction remained.
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The second bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, is dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
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Although much debate surrounds whether or not the atomic bombs really shortened WW2, or whether they were ethical methods of war, atomic bombs still led to the greatly hastened surrender of Japan. The lasting radiation and enormous death toll, however, would remain there until well into the future.
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The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 decided that the Manhattan project would no longer be a separate entity and would instead be transferred to be under the US Atomic Energy Commission.
