This Day in History: 1945-07-16

Atomic Age begins Years of intense scientific work culminate in the Trinity atomic bomb test in desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico on this day in 1945. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been exploded, and this one was a plutonium bomb prototype of the one dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945. The possibility of ending all life on earth, either through deliberate warfare or accidental nuclear releases, has, quite naturally, changed everything about how we see nature and the world around us.