Manhattan Project
The Manhattan project was a top secret government initiative started with the purpose of creating a weapon of mass destruction, and atomic bomb. The Manhattan project began when physicists Albert Einstein, who was fleeing from the Nazis, and Enrico Fermi, who escaped from fascist Italy, told the President about the potential that Germany had for creating a weapon of mass destruction. At first the President was uninterested, but eventually agreed to start a project to build an atomic bomb in 1941, calling it the Manhattan Project. At first the project did not have much funding or attention, but after Enrico Fermi created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in December 1942. As soon as the higher ups on the project heard about the discovery, the project instantly become one of the most important things that government was involved in. This project ended up costing over two billion on research and development, and employing 120,000 Americans at different production plants. The conclusion of the Manhattan project was the detonation of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions were nothing close to anything that had been used on people before, and killed in total more than 200,000 people.
"Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Manhattan Project (United States History)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014. "The Manhattan Project." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014. |