The Smyth Report is the common name of an administrative history written by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop atomic bombs during World War II. It was released to the public on August 12, 1945, just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Smyth was commissioned to write the report by Major General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. The Smyth Report was the first official account of the development of the atomic bombs and the basic physical processes behind them. Since anything in the declassified Smyth Report could be discussed openly, it focused heavily on basic nuclear physics and other information which was either already widely known in the scientific community or easily deducible by a competent scientist. It omitted details about chemistry, metallurgy, and ordnance, ultimately giving a false impression that the Manhattan Project was all about physics. The Smyth Report sold almost 127,000 copies in its first eight printings, and was on the New York Times best-seller list from mid-October 1945 until late January 1946. It has been translated into over 40 languages.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyth_Report
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra
1676:
Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King Philip's War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War
1883:
The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga
1985:
Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into the ridge of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123
1990:
American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota, US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
cicada: Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent, well-veined wings. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cicada
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors ... This is not mere allegory, but an eternal memory. --Erwin Schrödinger https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger