Today marks 60 years since U.S. scientists detonated the world’s first thermonuclear weapon on the Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific. The hydrogen bomb, powered by nuclear fusion rather than fission, was hundreds of times more potent than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
In August 1955, Popular Science published 10 photographs that together tell the dramatic story of “10 years of progress in harnessing the mighty atom,” from the uranium rush to the first atomic hospitals. We also carefully illustrated and annotated our vision of an atomic spaceship (one day!) Check out the gallery for some of the biggest moments in atomic history.
