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
_______________________________ 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
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
bardo: (Tibetan Buddhism) The state of existence between death and subsequent reincarnation. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bardo
___________________________ 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