Atomic Discovery
From Leucippus in 500 BC postulating the theory of atoms and void to Einstein's theory of relativity.
1930's
In the 1930's key discoveries are made about the fissioning of atoms by Enrico Fermi, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner. These lay the groundwork for the development of n uclear weapons in the next decade.
1940's
The United States' Manhattan Project builds and tests the first atomic bombs. The new weapons are used on Hiroshima, then Nagasaki leading to the end of World War II. The beginning of the Cold War follows with the USSR's detonation of a atomic bomb in 1949.
1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949
1950's
The Korean War opens this decade that sees the first space travel by human beings, the construction of bomb shelters and the deployment of the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles by the United States in 1958.
1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 1960's
France and China join the "Nuclear Club". The Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink of a nuclear war and back. In 1968 an unpopular war in Vietnam and the rise of social demonstration across the world present the backdrop for the Non-Proliferation Treaty in which the nuclear powers promise to bring about complete nuclear disarmament.
1960 | 1961| 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 1970's
The SALT I and Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM)Treaties opened this decade on a positve note. The end of the Vietnam War was followed by the SALT II agreement. The tragic accident at Three Mile Island nuclear energy plant occured at the end of the decade.
1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 |1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 1980's
The Cold War was at its height with Ronald Reagan declaring the USSR "the Evil Empire." Reagan's Administration engineers a massive build-up of nuclear arms. In 1985 It's revealed that Israel may have up to 200 nuclear weapons stockpiled. By the end of the decade, the Cold War ended when Glasnost exploded into a mostly peaceful revolution across the former-Soviet block.
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 1990's
The promise of nuclear disarmament after the Cold War got a boost when Ukraine, Kazahkstan and Belarus chose to give up their nuclear arsenals inherited from the former Soviet Union. Other nuclear weapons states do not follow suit. By the end of the decade two other countried, India then Pakistan, tested nuclear weapons.
1990 | 1991 | 1992 |1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 2000's
This decade began with threats by the US to proceed with a nationwide missile defense system, even if this means abrogating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006
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