Atomic Energy Commission

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The true story of Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb

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Atomic cloud formation from the Baker Day explosion over the Bikini Atoll; photo created July 25, 1946. (Test Baker, mushroom cloud, underwater nuclear explosion)

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Smoke billowing 20,000 feet above Hiroshima, Japan, from the first atomic bomb every dropped in World War II.

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The First Atomic Bombs infographic, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Japan, United States, nuclear weapon, atomic bomb, World War II, WWII

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Cathedrale St.Jean in Lyon, France has a 14th-century astronomical clock that shows religious feast days till the year 2019; Perpetual Calendar

Ten Days That Vanished: The Switch to the Gregorian Calendar

Giorgione, Italian, 1477/1478-1510, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505/1510, oil on panel, overall: 90.8 x 110.5 cm (35 3/4 x 43 1/2 in.), Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.289, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins)

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Town of Sisimiut located on the coast of the Davis Strait on Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay, Greenland

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History & Society

Atomic Energy Commission

United States organization

Also known as: AEC

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jan 15, 2024 • Article History

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Category: History & Society

Date:: 1946 - present

Areas Of Involvement:: nuclear weapon; nuclear power; nuclear energy

Related People:: Isidor Isaac Rabi; James Brown Fisk

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Atomic Energy Commission, U.S. federal civilian agency established by the Atomic Energy Act, which was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on Aug. 1, 1946, to control the development and production of nuclear weapons and to direct the research and development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. On Dec. 31, 1946, the AEC succeeded the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (which had developed the atomic bomb during World War II) and thus officially took control of the nation’s nuclear program. The AEC was headed by a five-member board of commissioners, one of whom ...(100 of 299 words)

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