High Explosive Research was the independent British project to develop atomic bombs after the Second World War. The decision to undertake it was made in 1947 and publicly announced in 1948. The project was a civil, not a military, one. Production facilities were constructed under the direction of Christopher Hinton, including a uranium metal plant at Springfields, nuclear reactors and a plutonium processing plant at Windscale, and a gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment facility at Capenhurst, near Chester. The first nuclear reactor in the UK went critical at Harwell on 15 August 1947. William Penney directed bomb design from Fort Halstead, and later Aldermaston in Berkshire. The first British atomic bomb was successfully tested in Operation Hurricane (pictured) off the Monte Bello Islands in Australia on 3 October 1952. Britain thereby became the third country to test nuclear weapons. The project concluded with the delivery of the first Blue Danube atomic bombs to Bomber Command in 1953.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Explosive_Research
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
New Zealand Wars: A British victory against the Māori King Movement brought the Tauranga campaign to an end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauranga_campaign
1919:
During a general strike (newsreel featured) in Winnipeg, Canada, members of the Royal North-West Mounted Police attacked a crowd of strikers, armed with clubs and revolvers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_general_strike
1940:
World War II: The main offensive of the unsuccessful Italian invasion of France began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_invasion_of_France
2000:
President Bill Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to 22 Asian Americans, mostly from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions during World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_Pacific_American_Medal_of_Honor_recipients
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
ski-through: 1. (skiing) Of a ski lodge or other hotel establishment: providing skiers with the service of transporting their equipment, luggage, and vehicles to other establishments so they can ski directly to those establishments. 2. (skiing) Of a restaurant, shop, or other establishment or facility: providing service to skiers while they are still wearing their skis. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ski-through
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life. Reason may extend and stabilise, but it does not create, the capacity to affirm other life than his own. --Reinhold Niebuhr https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr