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Main Physicists on Project
The main physicists working on the Manhattan project were J. R. Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and Enrico Fermi. The project was originally the plan of Einstein and Fermi in order to make sure the United States would be caught up with Germany, who had already began working on nuclear reactions and atomic bombs. Due to Einstein's letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Manhattann Project was able to begin, and J. R. Oppenheimer was later hired to over see the production of the atomic bomb. -
Einstein's letter to Roosevelt
Albert Einstein sends a letter to Franklin Roosevelt urging him to begin an atomic research program after learning the German physicists had learned the secret of splitting an Uranium atom. -
Go-ahead
Roosevelt gives the go ahead for the production of an atomic bomb. -
The Manhattan Engineering District
Roosevelt authorizes the use of the Manhattan Engineering District in researching and producing the atomic bomb. -
Metallurgical Laboratory
Enrico Fermi's work with graphite and uranium is made a new secret project, code named the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago -
Colonel Leslie Groves
Colonel Leslie Groves is notified that his assignment overseas is cancelled, and takes over the Manhattan Project fixing many problems that had been dragging on for months. He later is the one who hires J. Robert Oppenheimer to be the project's Scientific Director. -
Project Y
Colonel Leslie Groves asks J. Robert Oppenheimer to head Project Y, a newly planned central laboratory for weapon physics research and design. -
First Nuclear Chain Reaction
Enrico Fermi and a group of physicists produce the first controlled nuclear chain reaction under the grandstand of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. -
Hanford Engineer Works
Col. Groves acquires Hanford Engineer Works for plutonium production reactors and seperation plants. -
Target Commitee
The Target Commitee on the prject choses Japan as the target of any future attacks using the atomic bomb the Manhattan Project had produced. The towns chosen are Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kokura, and Niigata. -
First Atomic Bomb Detonation
The first atomic bomb is detonated at Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The bomb, which was attached to a 100 foot tall pole, exploded into a 40,000 foot mushroom cloud blowing out windows 100 miles away. The bomb created a half mile crater in the ground around it, turning the sand to glass. -
Expectations
Like they had first set out to do, the physicists of the Manhattan Project were able to use the atomic reactions they had been studying to create a nuclear weapon before any of the Axis powers in World War II could do so.
