History: The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project yielded the most destructive manmade event in history, effectively revolutionizing modern warfare and deepening our understanding of nuclear sciences. The rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party, otherwise known as the Nazi Party, led many to believe that a second war in Europe was inevitable, amongst them included Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein. In 1933 the idea of a nuclear chain reaction was first conceived by Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard. He hypothesized that if a nuclear reaction created neutrons, it would create more subsequent nuclear reactions, he was unable to prove his theory at the time because nuclear fission had not yet been discovered.

Five years later, while living in New York, Szilard learned

The Uranium Committee was focused on nuclear chain reaction experimentation by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard. In 1941, Japan bombed the U.S. naval base, Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into the Second World War. This resulted in Roosevelt’s ordering of a secret research project to develop atomic weapons. The Uranium Committee was taken over by the Army Corps of Engineers, and was renamed the Manhattan Engineering District, also known as the Manhattan Project. Army Brigadier General Leslie Groves was appointed as the overseer of the operation. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was hired by General Groves to lead the research and development aspect of the Manhattan Project.

Before construction of any type could begin, America still needed a nuclear reactor to successfully go critical and incite a nuclear chain reaction. Hypothesized for nearly a decade, it finally became a reality in 1942 at the University of Chicago when Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard created the Chicago Pile-1 under racquetball bleachers. The Chicago Pile-1 was a very basic nuclear reactor, consisting of bricks of uranium and a wooden frame, but it

Over the next 50 years, atomic weapons dominated the world stage in an era known as the Cold War. The Cold War was an era of political feuding between the two , nuclear armed superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. This conflict between the two nations did not cause any direct fighting, but instead two proxy wars, or wars where nations use smaller pawn countries they support to fight. Both the Korean and Vietnam wars can be considered direct long-term effects of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was one of the most influential events of the 20th century, altering all aspects of life. It started the most costly arms race the world had ever seen, which struck terror into the hearts of people all across the planet, a fear that looms over us even to this day. The exploration of the nuclear sciences had truly begun now, creating medicines and new forms of energy far more efficient than any previously seen, which are still being expanded upon and explored further. Never has any event had such a drastic and lasting impact on the lives of every single person living