On This Day: September 19th - The First Underground Nuclear Explosion

The very first underground nuclear explosion took place on this day in 1957. The test explosion was conducted by the United States government during a series of nuclear weapons tests and trials in the 1950s named Operation Plumbbob. This test in particular was named Rainier and was held at the Nevada Test Site near the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. The contained explosion left no radioactive fallout and was deemed a successful test. The race for Nuclear weapon dominance began in 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt allotted two billion dollars in funding for a top secret nuclear weapons research project named Project Manhattan during World War II. These controversial tests would help the United States prepare for usage of nuclear weapons in wartime.

The first time an atomic nuclear bomb was used in warfare was in 1945 when the United States bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6th and August 9th, 1945 during World War II. The bombings were an answer to the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941 when the Empire of Japan attacked a U.S. naval base on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii. The United States government was the first to test, manufacture and use nuclear weapons. Since World War II, many world countries have developed nuclear weapons or have implemented a nuclear weapon development program. Why do you think the first underground nuclear explosion is historically relevant? See a test from the Nevada Test Site.

"Nevada is site of first-ever underground nuclear explosion ." 2008. The History Channel website. 13 Sep 2008, 05:21 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=60048.