British scientists were crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. After Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch at the University of Birmingham calculated that a small sphere of pure uranium-235 could explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite, their memorandum led to Britain's own atomic bomb project. This project shared research with the US, but was eventually subsumed by the Manhattan Project under the 1943 Quebec Agreement. A British mission led by the Australian physicist Mark Oliphant assisted in the development of electromagnetic separation processes for enriching uranium; Wallace Akers led a similar mission assisting with gaseous diffusion. James Chadwick (pictured) was the head of a distinguished team of British scientists working on bomb design at the Los Alamos Laboratory that included Niels Bohr, Peierls, Frisch, Geoffrey Taylor, and James Tuck, as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was later revealed to be a Soviet atomic spy. American and British cooperation ended with the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. In October 1952, Britain became the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_contribution_to_the_Manhattan_Project

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1588:

An apparently spontaneous public uprising arose in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate policies of Henry III. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Barricades

1846:

Led by George Donner, the American pioneer group known as the Donner Party, which became known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevadas, left Independence, Missouri, for California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

1926:

The Trades Union Congress, a federation of British trade unions, announced that it would end its week-long general strike "in defence of [coal] miners' wages and hours". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike

1968:

The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the Vietnam War for the Australian Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Coral%E2%80%93Balmoral

2006:

A cartoon that allegedly compared Iranian Azeris to cockroaches was published in an Iranian magazine, sparking riots throughout the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_newspaper_cockroach_cartoon_controversy

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

kosher: 1. (Judaism) Fit for use or consumption, in accordance with Jewish law (especially relating to food). 2. (figuratively, by extension) In accordance with standards or usual practice. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kosher

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

What is Mysticism? Is it not the attempt to draw near to God, not by rites or ceremonies, but by inward disposition? Is it not merely a hard word for " The Kingdom of Heaven is within"? Heaven is neither a place nor a time. There might be a Heaven not only here but now. It is true that sometimes we must sacrifice not only health of body, but health of mind (or, peace) in the interest of God; that is, we must sacrifice Heaven. But "thou shalt be like God for thou shalt see Him as He is": this may be here and now, as well as there and then.   --Florence Nightingale https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale