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The Sixties: The Atomic Age

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Introduction

The twentieth century made enormous technological, scientific and healthcare advances. Two of the greatest of these advances were landing a man on the moon and splitting the atom. Afraid the Nazis were going to manufacture an atom bomb, the United States government spent billions on the Manhattan Project. Adolph Hitler's Third Reich failed in their efforts. Finally, in 1945, the scientists of the Manhattan Project, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, accomplished its goal. Upon seeing the detonation of the first atom bomb during the Trinity test in New Mexico, Oppenheimer quoted The Bhagavad Gita, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Humanity now had a weapon that could not only completely destroy nations, but the whole planet. 

Nuclear Discovery

Picture: Stylized Atom

 

Stylised atom based on Lithium Atom stylised image by Halfdan. Author: SVG by Indolences. Recoloring and ironing out some glitches done by Rainer Klute. Use licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
  • 1905. Einstein introduces his special theory of relativity: E=mc2
  • 1910. Marie Curie isolates pure radium.
  • 1911.Ernest Rutherford discovers the nucleus of the atom.
  • 1913. Niels Bohr publishes theory of atomic structure.
  • 1914. H. G. Wells' The World Set Free predicts the destructive power of the atom bomb.
  • 1915. Albert Einstein publishes general theory of relativity..
  • 1919. Ernest Rutherford creates first artificially-induced nuclear reaction.
  • 1925. Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and later Erwin Schrodinger formulate quantum mechanics.
  • 1927. Werner Heisenberg proposes the Uncertainty Principle.
  • 1932. James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
  • 1932. John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atom.
  • 1933. Leo Szilard conceives the idea of using a chain reaction to create energy.
  • 1934. Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot demonstrate artificial radioactivity.
  • 1934. Ida Noddack publishes paper proposing nuclear fission.
  • 1934. Enrico Fermi splits uranium, not knowing that he has achieved nuclear fission.
  • 1938. Otto Hahn isolates evidence for nuclear fission.
  • 1938. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch articulate how fission works.
  • 1939. President Roosevelt receives letter from Albert Einstein and others, warning Germany may be making an atom bomb.
  • 1939. World War II begins.
  • 1941. Glenn Seaborg and his team discover plutonium.
  • 1941 - 1945. The Manhattan Project creates the first atom bomb.
  • 1942. Brigadier General Leslie Groves put in charge of Manhattan Project.
  • 1942. J. Robert Oppenheimer is made the Scientific Director of the Manhattan Project.
  • 1942. Enrico Fermi demonstrates a controlled nuclear reaction.
  • 1945. Successful detonation of an atom bomb at the Trinity test in Alamogordo, NM.
  • 1945. US drops atom bombs on HIroshima, and Nagasak, Japan to end WWII.

Nations with the Bomb

  • United States (1945)
  • Soviett Union (Russia) (1949)
  • Great Britain (1952)
  • France (1960)
  • China (1964)
  • South Africa (1979, dismantles 1991)
  • Israel (revealed 1986)
  • India (1974)
  • Pakistan (1998)
  • North Korea (2006)

Source: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Power

Photograph shows atomic bomb mushroom cloud over Nagasaki. Japan on Aug. 9, 1945 / U.S. Army A.A.F. photo.
Source: Library of Congress.

Nuclear Events

  • 1946. U.S. conducts underwater nuclear explosion at Bikini Atoll.
  • 1946. First nuclear-reactor-produced radiosotapes for peacetime use shipped to Brainard Cancer Center.
  • 1946. Congress creates the Atomic Energy Commission.
  • 1946. The Soviet Union (Russia) achieves its first nuclear chain reaction.
  • 1946. First successful treatment of cancer using radioisotopes.
  • 1947. Great Britain builds its first atomic reactor.
  • 1950. Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) created.
  • 1950. Niels Bohr's "Open Letter to the United Nations" urges international cooperation on nuclear energy.
  • 1948. US govt & Westinghouse announce plans for nuclear power to produce electricity.
  • 1949. The Soviet Union (Russia) explodes its first atomic bomb.
  • 1951. First usable electricity produced from nuclear energy.
  • 1951. Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam design the first configuration for the Hydrogen Bomb.
  • 1952. Great Britain tests its first nuclear weapon.
  • 1952.U.S. tests its first hydrogen bomb.
  • 1953. President Eisenhower launches the "Atoms for Peace" Program.
  • 1954. U.S. tests first deliverable hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll.
  • 1954. Congress allows the Atomic Energy Commission to license private companies use of nuclear material and power plants.
  • 1955. Arco, ID (pop. 1200) depends solely on nuclear energy for more than an hour.
  • 1955. USS Nautilus becomes the first nuclear-powered submarine at sea.
  • 1955. The Soviet Union (Russia) deploys two strategic bombers.
  • 1955. The Soviet Union (Russia explodes its first hydrogen bomb.
  • 1956. Calder Hall, first nuclear power station, at Sellafield, UK
  • 1957. Britain explodes its first hydrogen bomb.
  • 1957. UN International Atomic Energy Agency created.
  • 1957. The Soviet Union (Russia) announces successful launch of an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile).
  • 1957. U.S. conducts first underground nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
  • 1957. Gaither Report on Deterrence & Survival in the Nuclear Age leads to an upsurge of interest in fallout shelters.
  • 1958. U.S. Operation Argus creates artificial radiation belt belt around the planet.
  • 1958 - 1961. U.S., Britain and The Soviet Union (Russia) observe informal moratorium on nuclear tests.
  • 1958. USS Nautilus first ship to voyage under the North Pole.
  • 1959. U.S. deploys its first ICBM.
  • 1960. France tests its first atomic bomb..
  • 1961. U.S. & Russia resume nuclear testing.
  • 1962. First advanced gas-cooled reactor installed in England.
  • 1962. Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • 1963. U.S. and the Soviet Union (Russia)  sign a Limited Test Ban Treaty. It bans all nuclear weapons tests above ground, under sea and in space. 
  • 1964. China tests its first atom bomb.
  • 1966. French begin testing hydrogen bombs in French Polynesia.
  • 1967. Outer Space Treaty bans nuclear weapons place on any celestial body or in orbit around the Earth.
  • 1967. Treaty of Tlatelolco creates a nculear-weapons-free zone in Latin America.
  • 1967. First Chinese hydrogen bomb test.
  • 1968. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by 62 states, including U.S., the Soviet Union (Russia) and Great Britain.
  • 1969. Protests against Amchitka Island, AK nuclear tests.
  • 1970. Banberry test at Yucca Flat in Nevada.
  • 1971. Greenpeace begins its campaigns, protesting underground nuclear testing on Amchitka Island, AK.
  • 1972. U.S. and the Soviet Union (Russia) sign Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
  • 1974. India becomes a nuclear weapons nation.
  • 1974. U.S. & the Soviet Union (Russia)  sign Threshold Test Ban Treaty.
  • 1974. Atomic Energy Commission split into two agencies: The Nuclear Regulatory Agency and The Energy Research And Development Administration.
  • 1978. President Carter cancels production of "neutron bomb."
  • 1979. Nuclear Test explosion in Indian Ocean. Thought to be South Africa, aided by Israel.
  • 1979. Temporary injunction granted against The Progressive Magazine, preventing publication of designs for H-bomb.
  • 1979. South Africa conducts its first nuclear weapons test.
  • 1983. Pakistan begins nuclear weapons testing.
  • 1987. U.S. deactivates last Titan II missile.
  • 1989. South Africa dismantles its nuclear weapons.

Sources: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Timeline.shtml
http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3691
https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/timeline

3 Mile Island

Photograph: Three-mile Island nuclear power plant

This image depicts the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, the site of a March 28, 1979 power plant accident. Photograph from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Found on Wikimedia Commons.

Films

  • The China Syndrome (1979)
  • The Day After (1983)
  • Fail Safe (1964)
  • Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
  • On the Beach (1959)
  • Silkwood (1983)
  • War Games (1983)

Anti-nuclear Organizations founded in the 1950s-1970s

  • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
  • Clamshell Alliance
  • Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA)
  • Committee for a Sane Nuclear Police (SANE)
  • Greenpeace
  • Women Strike for Peace.

Additional References

Constable, G., Armstrong, N., Clarke, A. C., & Somerville, B. (2004). A century of innovation: Twenty engineering achievements that transformed our lives. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press.
Farber, D. R., & Bailey, B. L. (2005). The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press.
Kenner, R. (Director). (2017). American Experience: Command & Control [Motion picture on DVD]. USA: PBS: WGBH Educational Foundation.
Rockwell, J. (2014). The Times of the Sixties: the culture, politics and personalities that shaped the decade. New York, NY: Black Dog.
Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America, 1954-1974. Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.