Operation Hurricane was the first test of a British atomic device, detonated on 3 October 1952 in the lagoon in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. During the Second World War, Britain commenced a nuclear weapons project, known as Tube Alloys, but the 1943 Quebec Agreement merged it with the American Manhattan Project. Several key British scientists worked on the Manhattan Project, but after the war the Americans ended cooperation. In January 1947, a cabinet sub- committee decided to resume efforts to build nuclear weapons. To test the effects of a ship-smuggled atomic bomb on a port (a threat of concern to the British at the time), the bomb was exploded inside the hull of a frigate, HMS Plym, leaving a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 6 metres (20 ft) deep and 300 metres (1000 ft) across. With the success of Operation Hurricane, Britain became the third nuclear power, after the United States and the Soviet Union. (This article is part of a featured topic: Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom.).
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Nuclear_weapons_and_the_United_Kingdom
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1849:
American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious in a gutter in mysterious circumstances; it was the last time he was seen in public before his death four days later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe
1951:
The First Battle of Maryang-san, widely regarded as one of the Australian Army's greatest accomplishments during the Korean War, began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Maryang-san
1962:
Mercury-Atlas 8, the fifth United States crewed space mission, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying astronaut Wally Schirra (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_8
1981:
A hunger strike by Irish republican prisoners at HM Prison Maze outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended after seven months and ten deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
build bridges: (intransitive, idiomatic) Often followed by between or to: to establish friendly relations or links. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/build_bridges
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
They say I gotta learn, but nobody's here to teach me If they can't understand it, how can they reach me I guess they can't, I guess they won't I guess they front, that's why I know my life is out of luck, fool. Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise.Tell me why are we, so blind to see That the ones we hurt, are you and me? --Coolio https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Coolio