Operation Crossroads was a series of two
nuclear weapon tests
conducted by the United States at
Bikini Atoll in mid-1946 to investigate the effect of such weapons on naval ships. They were the first nuclear detonations after
World War II, and the first ever to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps. A fleet of 95
target ships was assembled in Bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of
Fat Man plutonium
implosion-type nuclear weapons of the type
dropped on Nagasaki, each with a yield of 23
kt (96
TJ). The first test, Able, was an air burst that sank five ships and demonstrated the survivability of ships located more than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) from the explosion. The second test, Baker, was an underwater explosion (pictured), which effectively destroyed the entire target fleet with radioactive contamination. It was the first case of immediate, concentrated
radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion. The fallout from Baker and subsequent Bikini tests still renders the area uninhabitable.
Glenn Seaborg, the longest-serving chairman of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker "the world's first nuclear disaster." (
Full article...)
... that the
Charlotte Checkers ice hockey team went five consecutive away games without a regulation loss, but lost a franchise-worst six straight home games in their 2013–14 season?
This Wikipedia is written in
English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains
4,392,459 articles.
Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.