Pacific Proving Grounds

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The Pacific Proving Grounds was the name given by the United States government to a number of sites in the Marshall Islands and a few other sites in the Pacific Ocean at which it conducted nuclear testing between 1946 and 1962. The U.S. tested a nuclear weapon (codenamed Able) on Bikini Atoll on June 30, 1946. This was followed by Baker on July 24, 1946 (dates are Universal Time, local dates were July 1 and 25, respectively). On July 18, 1947, the United States secured an agreement with the United Nations to govern the islands of Micronesia as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a strategic trusteeship territory. This is the only such trusteeship ever granted by the United Nations to the United States. The Trust Territory comprised about 2,000 islands spread over 3,000,000 square miles (7,800,000 km2) of the North Pacific Ocean. Five days later, the United States Atomic Energy Commission established the Pacific Proving Grounds. The United States conducted 105 atmospheric and underwater...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Original: United States Department of Defense (either the U.S. Army or the U.S. Navy) Derivative work: Victorrocha (talk), Public domain