1942 Manhattan Project
When it was known that the German scientists, Otto Hahn and Strassmann
had achieved nuclear fission, the U.S. was worried that Adolf
Hilter might succeed in developing an atomic bomb. The U.S. president,
Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed that they should begin a crash program
to develop a fission bomb first. The Manhattan Project, directed
by J. Robert Oppenheimer, was then started.
The U.S. government assembled many top scientists in the world
at a remote area called Los Alamos to determine the most effective
way to build this lethal weapon. It took four years for the team
to build two types of bombs. One was called "Little Boy"
while the other one was called "Fat Man". By July 1945,
four bombs were completed.
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