Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

The history of the atomic bomb dates back to the early 1900’s when Einstein’s theory of relativity proved a basis for understanding nuclear energy and showed that the atom contained vast energy. This energy seemed beyond men’s grasp until the late 1930’s. In 1939 scientists succeeded in splitting the atoms of uranium by bombarding them with neutrons. They found that the split atoms released neutrons and energy. Physicists found that the fission of these atoms could produce a chain reaction. In the summer of 1939 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt explaining the potential for atom-splitting devices in warfare as well as the possibility of other countries possessing this information. In the summer of 1940 Einstein moved to Manhattan, New York to begin research on an atomic bomb. The “Manhattan Project” as the atomic bomb project was called, tested their first prototype in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 6, 1945. Due to the success of these tests the U.S. military requested these bombs for use in World War 2. The first military application of the atomic bomb followed shortly after the tests. On August 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped its first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.