This timeline of nuclear weapons development is a chronological catalog of the evolution of nuclear weapons rooting from the development of the science surrounding nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. In addition to the scientific advancements, this timeline also includes several political events relating to the development of nuclear weapons. The availability of intelligence on recent advancements in nuclear weapons of several major countries (such as United States and the Soviet Union) is limited because of the classification of technical knowledge of nuclear weapons development.
Before 1930 1895 – Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen discovers X-rays at the University of Würzburg. 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers that uranium emits radiation at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. 1898 – J.J. Thomson observes the photoelectric effect. 1900 – Max Planck theorizes that matter can only absorb energy in fixed quanta. 1904 – Frederick Soddy first proposes a bomb powered by nuclear fission to the Royal Engineers. 1905 – Albert Einstein proposes mass–energy equivalence, deriving from his theory of special relativity, which he had developed earlier that year. 1911 – Ernest Rutherford discovers that the majority of the energy in an atom is contained in the nucleus through experiments at the University of Manchester. 1912 – J.J. Thomson discovers isotopes through experiments with neon. 1914 – H.G. Wells writes The World Set Free, a science fiction novel postulating a world war in 1956 pitting the United Kingdom and France against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Inspired by the research of Rutherford, Sir William Ramsay, and Frederick Soddy, the novel predicts the development of atomic weapons, and features a "carolinum"-based hand grenade that does not extinguish once detonated. 1920 – Rutherford postulates the existence of a neutral particle in the atomic nucleus at a Bakerian Lecture in London. 1924 – Writing for The Pall Mall Gazette, Winston Churchill speculates "Might a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings – nay to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke?"
1930–1940 1932 – James Chadwick discovers the neutron, leading to experiments in which elements are bombarded with the new particle. 1933 – Leó Szilárd realizes the concept of the nuclear chain reaction, although no such reaction was known at the time. He invented the idea of an atomic bomb in 1933 while crossing a London street in Russell Square. He patented it in 1934. (British patent 630,726) 1934 – Enrico Fermi conducts experiments in which he exposes uranium and thorium to neutrons to create distinct new substances. Although he is unaware at the time, he creates the first synthetic elements, the transuranium elements. 1938 – Fermi is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his achievements, and flees from Fascist Italy to the United States due to the racial laws ratified under pressure from Nazi Germany. 1938 – December – The German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman detect barium after bombarding uranium with neutrons. This is correctly interpreted by Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch as nuclear fission. 1939 – January – Otto Robert Frisch experimentally confirms Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman's discovery of nuclear fission. Frisch goes to Copenhagen to share the discovery with Niels Bohr, who in turn reports the discovery to his American colleagues. Bohr and John Archibald Wheeler determine later that year through chain-reaction experiments at Princeton University that uranium-235 could produce a nuclear explosion. 1939 – April – Nazi Germany begins the German nuclear energy project. 1939 – September 1 – World War II begins after the invasion and subsequent partition of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. 1939 – October – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt receives the Einstein–Szilárd letter and authorizes the creation of the Advisory Committee on Uranium. The Uranium Committee has its first meeting on October 21, and $6,000 was budgeted for conducting neutron experiments.
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