The Los Alamos Laboratory was a secret laboratory in a remote part of New Mexico established by the Manhattan Project during World War II and operated by the University of California. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. The laboratory was designing a plutonium gun-type fission weapon called Thin Man until April 1944, when it determined that the nuclear reactor-bred plutonium in the bomb could predetonate before the core was fully assembled. Robert Oppenheimer reorganized the laboratory, and orchestrated an all-out effort on an alternative design, an implosion-type nuclear weapon called Fat Man. The gun-type Little Boy was developed using uranium-235. The laboratory also built an aqueous homogeneous reactor, and researched the hydrogen bomb. The Fat Man design was used in the Trinity nuclear test on 16 July 1945, and laboratory personnel participated in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as pit crews, weaponeers and observers. Oppenheimer was succeeded as director by Norris Bradbury in December 1945. After the war, assembly activities moved to Sandia. The Los Alamos Laboratory became the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1947.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Y
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1769:
Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Diego_de_Alcal%C3%A1
1782:
Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail made its premiere, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the comment that it had "too many notes". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Entf%C3%BChrung_aus_dem_Serail
1931:
Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first constitution, intended to officially replace the Fetha Nagast, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Constitution_of_Ethiopia
1983:
A British Airways Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashed in the Celtic Sea in thick fog, killing 20 of the 26 on board, and sparking a review of helicopter safety in the United Kingdom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_British_Airways_Sikorsky_S-61_crash
2007:
A magnitude 6.6 MW earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Ch%C5%ABetsu_offshore_earthquake
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
massasauga: The rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus, syn. Crotalus catenatus) in the family Viperidae, found in three subspecies. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massasauga
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm not too sure old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she's only a little child and all. But she was listening, at least. If somebody at least listens, it's not too bad. --The Catcher in the Rye https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye