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>