The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that
produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the
United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From
1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General
Leslie Groves of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It began modestly in
1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly
US$2 billion (the equivalent of about $26 billion now). Although it
operated under a tight blanket of security, it was penetrated by Soviet
atomic spies. The first device ever detonated was an implosion-type
nuclear weapon in the Trinity test (pictured), conducted at New Mexico's
Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Project personnel
participated in the Alsos Mission in Europe, and in the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war the Manhattan Project conducted
weapons testing in Operation Crossroads, developed new weapons,
established the network of national laboratories, supported medical
research into radiology, and laid the foundations for a nuclear navy. It
was replaced by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces
Special Weapons Project in 1947.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1769:
Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de
Alcalá (pictured), the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California
region of New Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Diego_de_Alcal%C3%A1>
1790:
U.S. President George Washington signed the Residence Act,
selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital
of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.>
1931:
Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first
constitution, the first time in history that an absolute ruler
voluntarily sought to share sovereignty with his subjects.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Constitution_of_Ethiopia>
1965:
South Vietnamese Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao—an undetected
communist spy—was hunted down and killed after being sentenced to
death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyen Khanh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pham_Ngoc_Thao>
2008:
Sixteen infants in Gansu Province, China, were diagnosed with
kidney stones due to tainted milk powder; overall 300,000 infants were
affected.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
quisling:
(pejorative) A traitor who collaborates with the enemy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quisling>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To my mind, the expression of divinity is in variety, and the
more variable the creation, the more variable the creatures that
surround us, botanical and zoological, the more chance we have to learn
and to see into life itself, nature itself. ... we need variety. We came
from that, we were born from that, it's our world, the world in which we
became what we have become.
--Sheri S. Tepper
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper>