Timeline of Nuclear Technology and the Atomic Bomb

By definition "nuclear" as an adjective means relating to or constituting the nucleus of an atom, for example, nuclear physics, nuclear fission, or nuclear forces. Nuclear weapons are weapons deriving destructive energy from the release of atomic energy, for example, the atomic bomb. This timeline covers nuclear history.

1895

Mrs. Roentgen 's hand, the first X-ray picture of the human body ever taken. — Mrs. Roentgen's hand, the first X-ray picture of the human body ever taken. LOC

Cloud chamber for tracking charged particles is invented. Wilhelm Roentgen discovers x-rays. The world immediately appreciates their medical potential. Within five years, for example, the British Army is using a mobile x-ray unit to locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers in the Sudan. More »

1898

Marie Curie discovers the radioactive elements radium and polonium. More »

1905

Albert Einstein develops the theory about the relationship of mass and energy. More »

1911

Georg von Hevesy conceives the idea of using radioactive tracers. This idea is later applied to, among other things, medical diagnosis. Von Hevesy wins the Nobel Prize in 1943.

1913

The Radiation Detector is invented.

1925

First cloud-chamber photographs of nuclear reactions.

1927

Herman Blumgart, a Boston physician, first uses radioactive tracers to diagnose heart disease.

1931

Harold Urey discovers deuterium aka heavy hydrogen which is present in all natural hydrogen compounds including water.

1932

James Chadwick proves the existence of neutrons.

1934

On July 4, 1934, Leo Szilard filed the first patent application for the method of producing a nuclear chain reaction aka nuclear explosion.

December 1938

Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrate nuclear fission.

August 1939

Albert Einstein sends a letter to President Roosevelt informing him of German atomic research and the potential for a bomb. This letter prompts Roosevelt to form a special committee to investigate the military implications of atomic research.

September 1942

Atomic Bomb Explosion. Courtesy Outlawlabs

The Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans. More »

December 1942

Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard demonstrated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a lab under the squash court at the University of Chicago. More »

July 1945

The United States explodes the first atomic device at a site near Alamogordo, New Mexico - the invention of the atomic bomb. More »

August 1945

The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More »

December 1951

The first usable electricity from nuclear fission is produced at the National Reactor Station, later called the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

1952

Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb. More »

January 1954

The first nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus is launched. Nuclear power enables submarines to become true "submersibles" - able to operate underwater for an indefinite period of time. The development of the Naval nuclear propulsion plant was the work of a team Navy, government and contractor engineers led by Captain Hyman G. Rickover. More »