The Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in the US state of Illinois was established during World War II to research the chemistry and metallurgy of the newly discovered element plutonium, as part of the Allied Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. It developed chemical processes to separate plutonium, and created the first weighable sample. The lab produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor, which was constructed under the stands of the university's old football stadium, Stagg Field. Another reactor, Chicago Pile-3, the first reactor to use heavy water as a neutron moderator, was built in early 1944. The Metallurgical Laboratory also designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works. It became the first of the national laboratories, the Argonne National Laboratory, on 1 July 1946.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1882:

A group of London school boys led by Bobby Buckle founded Hotspur Football Club so they could continue to play sports during the winter months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tottenham_Hotspur_F.C.

1943:

World War II: American and Australian airborne forces made a landing at Nadzab as part of the New Guinea campaign against Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_at_Nadzab

1975:

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynette_Fromme

1977:

NASA launched the robotic space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

blasé: Unimpressed with something because of over-familiarity. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blas%C3%A9

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Close your bodily eye, so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react upon others from the outside inwards. A picture must not be invented but felt. Observe the form exactly, both the smallest and the large and do not separate the small from the large, but rather the trivial from the important.   --Caspar David Friedrich https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich