Chicago Pile-1 was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor. Its
construction was part of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to
create atomic bombs during World War II. It was built by the project's
Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, under the west
viewing stands of the original Stagg Field. The first human-made self-
sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated there on 2 December
1942, supervised by Enrico Fermi, who described the apparatus as "a
crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers". It contained 45,000
graphite blocks weighing 400 short tons (360 t) used as neutron
moderators, and was fueled by 6 short tons (5.4 t) of uranium metal and
50 short tons (45 t) of uranium oxide. In the pile, some of the free
neutrons produced by the natural decay of uranium were absorbed by other
uranium atoms, causing nuclear fission of those atoms, and the release
of additional free neutrons. Unlike most subsequent nuclear reactors, it
had no radiation shielding or cooling system as it only operated at very
low power – about one-half watt. The site is now a National Historic
Landmark.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Pile-1>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1804:
The coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French was held at
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Napoleon_I>
1823:
U.S. President James Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, a
proclamation of opposition to European colonialism in the New World.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine>
1950:
Korean War: With the conclusion of the Battle of the
Ch'ongch'on River, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army expelled UN
forces out of North Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ch%27ongch%27on_River>
1988:
Benazir Bhutto took office as the Prime Minister of Pakistan,
becoming the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority
state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benazir_Bhutto>
2015:
In San Bernardino, California, a married couple carried out a
mass shooting at a Christmas party before fleeing and dying in a
shootout with police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_San_Bernardino_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bardo:
(Tibetan Buddhism) The state of existence between death and subsequent
reincarnation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bardo>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In a sense, human flesh is made of stardust. Every atom in the
human body, excluding only the primordial hydrogen atoms, was fashioned
in stars that formed, grew old and exploded most violently before the
Sun and the Earth came into being. The explosions scattered the heavy
elements as a fine dust through space. By the time it made the Sun, the
primordial gas of the Milky Way was sufficiently enriched with heavier
elements for rocky planets like the Earth to form. And from the rocks
atoms escaped for eventual incorporation in living things: carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur for all living tissue; calcium
for bones and teeth; sodium and potassium for the workings of nerves and
brains; the iron colouring blood red… and so on. No other conclusion
of modern research testifies more clearly to mankind’s intimate
connections with the universe at large and with the cosmic forces at
work among the stars.
--Nigel Calder
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Calder>