First Atomic Bomb Test, 5:29:45 Mountain Standard Time
Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico – July 16, 1945
From A Distance Of About Five Miles
Negative #029314
When recounting what he witnessed, and what went through his mind on that day when the United Sates detonated the first atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer said “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Baghavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
Only 21 days later, the U.S. dropped “Little Boy,” the first atomic weapon intentionally used against civilians, on Hiroshima, Japan. “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki a mere three days after that.