January 11
The United Nations abolishes the Atomic Energy Commission and establishes the Disarmament Commission in its place.
Febuary 4
The United Nations Disarmament Commission holds its first meeting.
April 22
For the first time, the American media are permitted to cover live, and the public may witness by television, the detonation of a nuclear device (a 31 kiloton atmospheric test known as Operation Big Shot) at the Nevada Test Site.
September
A second U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory is established in Livermore, California.
October
South Africa opens its first uranium plant at West Rand Consolidated Mines near Johannesburg.
October 3
The United Kingdom conducts its first nuclear weapon test, Hurricane, at Monte Bello Island (off the northwest coast of Australia).
November 1
The United States detonates the first hydrogen bomb, 10.4 megaton Mike, at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The explosion is five-hundred times more powerful than the bomb that exploded in Nagasaki.
December
President-elect Dwight Eisenhower and his staff develop the "New Look" defense policy, which relies primarily on the power of atomic forces.
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1950s 
