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First X-Ray
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (accidently) discovered an image cast from his cathode ray generator, projected far beyond the possible range of the cathode rays. Rontgen took an X-ray photograph of his wife's hand which clearly revealed her wedding ring and her bones. -
Discovery of Polonuim
Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre Curie, discover Polonium, a radioactive element. -
Marie Curie discovers Radium
Marie Curie discovers her second and last element, Radium, which is also a radioactive element. -
Einstein and Mass-Equivalence Theory
Albert Einstein created his world-famous theory mass-equivalence formula, E=mc^2. -
Discovery of the Neutron
James Chadwick discovers the Neutron, the uncharged particle of the atom. -
Cockcroft teams with Walton to split the atom
John Cockcroft teams with Ernest Wilson to split the atom with protons accelerated to high speed -
Demostrating Nuclear Fission
Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrate nuclear fission. They found they could split the nucleus by adding more neutrons. -
Letter to Roosevelt
Leo Szilard and fellow Hungarian physicists Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller urged Albert Einstein to sign a letter they had drafted for President Roosevelt. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans -
First Nuclear Chain Reaction
Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard demonstrated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a lab under the squash court at the University of Chicago. -
Invention of the Atomic Bomb
The United States explodes the first atomic device at a site near Alamagordo, New Mexico - the invention of the atomic bomb -
Bombing on Japan
The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two Japanese cities, during WWII -
First nuclear-reactor-produced radioisotopes
The U.S. Army's Oak Ridge facility in Tennessee sends the first nuclear-reactor-produced radioisotopes for peacetime civilian use to Brainard Cancer Hospital in St. Louis. -
Atomic Energy Commission
The U.S. Congress passes the Atomic Energy Act to establish the Atomic Energy Commission, which replaces the Manhattan Project. -
Atomic Energy Act of 1954
The U.S. Congress passes the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, amending the 1946 act to allow the Atomic Energy Commission to license private companies to use nuclear materials. -
First advanced gas-cooled reactor
The first advanced gas-cooled reactor is built at Calder Hall in England. Intended originally to power a naval vessel, the reactor is too big to be installed aboard ship and is instead successfully used to supply electricity to British consumers -
Energy Reorganization Act of 1974
The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 splits the Atomic Energy Commission into the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) -
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurs in Ukraine during unauthorized experiments when four pressurized-water reactors overheat, releasing their water coolant as steam -
World record reliability benchmarks
The fleet of more than 100 nuclear power plants in the United States achieve world record reliability benchmarks. -
resources
Nuclear Technologies Timeline - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century. (n.d.). Timeline of Nuclear Technology and the Atomic Bomb. (n.d.).
