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Trinity detonation

Trinity was thecode name given to thenuclear test that saw the first detonation of anuclear weapon. The code name was assigned byJ. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of theLos Alamos Laboratory, after a poem byJohn Donne. It was conducted on July 16, 1945, as part of theManhattan Project on theAlamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in theJornada del Muerto desert. The test used aFat Man bomb of the same design as thatdetonated over Nagasaki. The complex design of theimplosion-type nuclear weapon required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and testing was required to allay fears that it would not work. Its detonation(video featured) produced the explosive power of about 20kilotons of TNT (84terajoules). The test site is now part of theWhite Sands Missile Range. It was declared aNational Historic Landmark District in 1965, and listed on theNational Register of Historic Places the following year.(This article is part of afeatured topic:History of the Manhattan Project.)

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A sketch of Preston Porter Jr.

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On this day

July 16

Phạm Ngọc Thảo

1790 – PresidentGeorge Washington signed theResidence Act, selecting a new permanent site along thePotomac River for the capital of the United States, which later becameWashington, D.C.
1950 –Korean War: AKorean People's Army unitmassacred 31 prisoners of war of theU.S. Army on a mountain near the village of Tuman.
1965 –South Vietnamese ColonelPhạm Ngọc Thảo(pictured)—an undetectedcommunist spy—was reported dead due to injuries sustained during his capture, but it is generally assumed he was killed on the orders of military officials.
1990 – A 7.8M_S earthquakestruck the densely populated Philippine island ofLuzon, killing an estimated 1,621 people.
2008 – Atainted milk powder scandal broke in China which ultimately involved an estimated 300,000 victims, the vast majority infants, with 54,000 hospitalized with kidney problems and six deaths.

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Today's featured picture

Anne of Cleves (German:Anna von Kleve; 28 June or 22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557) wasQueen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as thefourth wife ofHenry VIII. Anne outlived the rest of Henry's wives.

Painting credit:Hans Holbein the Younger

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