Nuclear Weapons timeline
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Advisory Committee on Uranium Holds Meeting Determining the Potential for Weaponizing of Uranium Ore
In August 1939, prominent physicists Leó Szilárd and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilárd letter, which warned of the potential development... Read more
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United States Drops Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United... Read more
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The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's second nuclear power.
The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), was the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. It is also known as Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was... Read more
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United Kindgom tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's third nuclear power, code named Operation Hurricane
Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon... Read more
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France tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's fourth nuclear power, code named Gerboise Bleue
Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara... Read more
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President Kennedy Authorizes Operation Mongoose
The Cuban Project (also known as Operation Mongoose or the Special Group or the Special Group Augmented) was a program of CIA covert operations... Read more
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United States U-2 Reconnaissance Mission Discovers SS-4 Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Sites in Varying Stages of Readiness
The first consignment of SS-3 MRBMs (medium range ballistic missiles) arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16.... Read more
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President Kennedy Assembles EXCOMM Upon Viewing Photographs of Soviet Missiles in Cuba
Kennedy saw the photographs on October 16; he assembled the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM), fourteen key officials... Read more
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Kennedy Meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
On October 18th the President ordered a build up of arms along the southern border of the United States, just in case war breaks out. No one... Read more
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John F. Kennedy Decides to "Quarantine" Cuba in Response to Nuclear Threat
On October 21st, ExComm, and President Kennedy decided that a quarantine was the best course of action. The administration called it a quarantine,... Read more
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President Kennedy Delivers First Speech on the Nuclear Buildup in Cuba
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack on... Read more
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Fidel Castro Writes Letter to Khruschev in which he Urges the Soviet Union to Attack the US if it Invades Cuba
I would like to briefly express my own personal opinion. If [an invasion of Cuba] takes place and the imperialists invade Cuba with the aim of... Read more
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John A. Scali of ABC Surreptitiously Meets with KGB Station Chief, Aleksandr Fomin
At 1:00 p.m., John A. Scali of ABC News had lunch with Aleksandr Fomin at Fomin's request. Fomin noted that "war seems about to break out" and... Read more
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Rudolf Anderson, Jr., USAF Pilot, is Shot Down Over Banes, Cuba
While the meeting progressed, at 11:03 a.m. a new message began to arrive from Khrushchev. The message stated, in part, "You are disturbed over... Read more
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Khruschev Announces Soviet Union will Remove Missiles from Cuba in Radio Moscow Address
After much deliberation between the Soviet Union and Kennedy's cabinet, Kennedy secretly agreed to remove all missiles set in Turkey on the border... Read more
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President Kennedy Ratifies the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
The Treaty banning Nuclear Weapon Tests In The Atmosphere, In Outer Space And Under Water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT),... Read more
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China tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's fifth nuclear power, code named 596
596 is the codename of the People's Republic of China's first nuclear weapons test, detonated on October 16, 1964 at the Lop Nur test site. It was... Read more
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Ratified
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT) is a treaty to limit the spread of... Read more
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India tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's sixth nuclear power, code named Smiling Buddha
While touring the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) on 7 September 1972 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave verbal authorization to the scientists... Read more
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Pakistan tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's seventh nuclear power, code named Chagai-I
Chagai-I refers to the nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan in 1998. It was named Chagai-I as the tests were conducted in the Chagai District... Read more
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North Korea tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's eighth nuclear power
North Korea’s Nuclear Test: Motivations, Implications, and U.S. Options On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it conducted a nuclear test.... Read more
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North Korea tests nuclear bomb in underground bunker
North Korea will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons. We will work with our friends and allies to stand up to this... Read more
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North Korea declares itself "proud nuclear power," warns U.S.
I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals. But I do want to give assurances to the American people that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. Read more
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North Korea Threatens to "Wipe Out" US
North Korea threatened on Wednesday to "wipe out" the United States in the event of a new war on the Korean Peninsula, as international observers... Read more