Sounds of the First A-Bomb Test | WBUR and NPR

TODAY IS SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2010

The following is a "closing segment" for the show which aired Friday, July 16, 2004 at 10:00 AM EDT.

Friday, July 16, 2004 at 10:00 AM EDT

Sounds of the First A-Bomb Test

On July 16, 1945, the fathers of the nuclear age, Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie R. Groves, Kenneth Bainbridge and other scientists of the Manhattan Project, gathered at the Alamagordo Test Range in New Mexico to detonate the first atomic bomb at 5:29 a.m.

Sand at the site turned instantly to glass. The 19-kiloton explosion ushered the world into the Nuclear Age. Eight days later, President Harry Truman issued the order to use the atomic bomb against Japan. But on July 16, 1945, only a select few were in New Mexico to witness history at the test site code named “Trinity.”

In this radio diary, hear the voices of Robert Oppenheimer, President Harry Truman, and others, following the first nuclear explosion in history, 59 years ago today, at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico.

Guests:

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