On July 16th - The First Atomic Bomb Exploded.
The world's first atomic bomb was secretly detonated in the desert at Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 16th, 1945. The U.S. began development of the bomb in 1939 under extreme secrecy, in three production centers, at a cost of $2 billion. At Oak Ridge, Tennessee or Atom City, 80,000 people lived and worked in an entirely self-contained community. Few had any knowledge of the true purpose of the epic making project. Little was known about the precise effects of radiation, but protective equipment was used in the hope of avoiding danger. The detonation of the bomb at Los Alamos was not made public until 3 weeks later, when two others like it devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.