The Sixties: The Atomic Age

• Fifth century BCE. Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus postulate the existence of atoms.
• 1895. German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers x-rays.
• 1896. French physicist Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
• 1897. J. J. Thomson of Britain identifies the electron.
• 1898. Marie and Pierre Curie discover polonium and radium.

• 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.

• 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

• Merry Little Minuet, The Kingston Trio (1959)
• Crawl Out Through the Fallout, Sheldon Allman (1960)
• Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me, Charles Mingus (1962)
• A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Bob Dylan (1963)
• Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire (1965)
• I Come and Stand at Every Door, The Byrds (1966)
• House at Pooneil Corners, Jefferson Airplane (1968)
• Wooden Ships, Crosby Stills & Nash (1969)
• Electric Funeral, Black Sabbath (1970)
• Political Science (Let's Drop the Big One), Randy Newman (1972)

Source:allmusic.com
Songs found on Spotify

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

• 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

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.

• 1957. Windscale fire at British nuclear reactor near Cumberland.
• 1957. A nuclear bomb dropped near Albuquerque, NM
• 1958. B-47, carrying a nuclear weapon, has a midair crash above the Savannah River in Georgia.
• 1961. Idaho Falls reactor core overheated.
• 1961. Goldsboro, NC: Air Force bomber breaks apart, dropping two bombs.
• 1961. A B-52 with two nuclear weapons crashes near Yuba City, CA.
• 1962. Duluth, MN: An intruder bear almost sets off a nuclear strike.
• 1966. Palomares, Spain: B-52 with four hydrogen bombs crashes.
• 1968. B-52 with four hydrogen bombs crashes at Thule Air Base in Greenland.
• 1979. Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown.
• 1980. Accident at a Titan missile complex in Damascus, AR.
• 1986. Chernobyl reactor exploded.
• 1987. Goiania, Brazil accident.
• 1993. Tomsk-7 Explosion in Siberia.
• 1999. Tokaimura Nuclear Plant disaster.
• 2011. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station reactor meltdown.

• 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)

• 1958. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament holds its first meeting.
• 1961. Women Strike for Peace demonstrates in 60 cities.
• 1962. Women Strike for Peace demonstrates at the White House.
• 1969. Protests against Amchitka Island, AK nuclear tests.
• 1972. Greenpeace protests French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
• 1973. Karen Slkwood testifies before the Atomic Energy Commission, calling attention to health and safety concerns in nuclear facility.
• 1974. Karen Silkwood murdered.
• 1976. Clamshell Alliance becomes the first American anti-nuclear group to conduct direct-action protests, campaigning against the building of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. 
• 1979. "No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future" concert in Madison Square Garden.
• 1982. A million people rally in New York City for disarmament.

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