The Worst Night of Bombing in London, December 29, 1940

Today in 1940, the German Air Force, known as the Luftwaffe, launched its heaviest air raid against London. Bombs started hundreds of fires which affected all parts of the city. As had been the case in the past and would be the case in the future, it was only the tenacity, resourcefulness and courage of the British populace and military that kept the nation going during this worst night of the Battle of Britain.

Late 1940 was not a good time for the western allies. France, Holland, Belgium, Norway and half of Poland were in German hands. The British Expeditionary Force barely escaped capture and/or destruction through the miracle of the Dunkirk evacuation, but most of their heavy weapons had to be left behind. Thus, the island nation had very little with which to defend herself should the Germans have decided to invade.

And they did plan to invade. In July of that fateful year, Hitler ordered the German military to begin preparations for Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of England. In order to carry off this mission, the German Luftwaffe had to have total control of the skies over the English Channel and the landing beaches. Thus, strikes against British facilities were intensified in an attempt to force an open fight from the Royal Air Force. Some raids included as many as 1,500 German aircraft, greatly outnumbering the island’s defenders.

The RAF resisted the onslaught with great success. During 1940, Germany lost two planes for every RAF plane shot down. The use of radar helped, as did the Spitfire, the British miracle aircraft that was more maneuverable than most German designs. But the main cause of British success was the bravery of His Majesty’s pilots, who flew day in and day out, sometimes flying multiple sorties in a single day.

In August, the RAF launched a raid against Berlin in retaliation for the attacks on the Home Islands. In response, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities instead of military facilities. The cost of the daylight raids was high as thousands of civilians were killed. But the Luftwaffe was paying a high price by operating in daylight, so much so that daytime raids were abandoned and sorties were only carried out at night. Realizing that the RAF was not going to yield, Hitler canceled plans for Operation Sea Lion but kept the bombing operation going.

The bombing of London on the night of December 29th brought the bravery of the average citizen to the fore. Firemen put out fires while bombs dropped around them. Despite tremendous loses in property and life, morale remained high. As American reporter Edward R. Murrow put it, “Not once have I heard a man, woman or child suggest that Britain should throw her hand.”

The raids against London and the other cities became fewer and fewer after that December and all but died off in May, 1941 as Germany turned her war machine towards the Soviet Union. The British people and the pilots of the RAF had stood against what was then the finest army and air force in the world and stopped them cold. History knows few cases where the victor was more outmatched in equipment and numbers than the RAF in 1940.

Europe's Deadliest Earthquake, December 28, 1908

Today in 1908, a devastating earthquake struck the Straits of Messina, the body of water between the island of Sicily and the Italian mainland. The earthquake and the tsunami it caused ultimately led to the deaths of more than 100,000 people, making it the most deadly earthquake in European history.

The Mediterranean Sea is located over the area where the African tectonic plate meets the Eurasian plate. The African plate is slowly pushing itself into the Eurasian plate at a rate of one inch per year, making the entire area, and especially southern Italy and Sicily, susceptible to severe earthquakes. There are many recorded instances of deadly quakes there dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. In fact, there are indications of 2422 damaging earthquakes between the years 1000 and 1980.

The 1908 earthquake was especially deadly for two reasons: first, it occurred at 5:20 in the morning local time. At this early hour, most people were still in bed, not outside where they would’ve been in less danger from falling buildings. Second, the epicenter of the quake was between the city of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. At that time, Messina had a population of 150,000 and Reggio di Calabria had a population of 50,000. There were also dozens of smaller towns and villages crowded along the coastline.

Had the earthquake occurred on dry land, the damage would’ve been great; it is now estimated that the initial quake registered a 7.5 on the Richter scale. But with the epicenter being underwater, a 40-foot high tsunami was created that added massively to the carnage. The two major cities on either side of the Straits were 90% destroyed and all means of communication with the outside world were severed. Smaller tremors occurred over the next few days, collapsing more buildings and claiming more victims.

It took two days before the first help begin to arrive by ship. The coastline was so changed that many of the sailors could no longer recognize the area. In some places, land near the coast had sunk several feet into the sea.

Christmas Eve On Apollo 8, December 24, 1968

Sorry, no transcript tonight.

The Crew Of The Pueblo Released, December 23, 1968

Today in 1968, the crew of the USS Pueblo was released from North Korean custody. The 82 crew members had been held by the North Korean regime for eleven months after being accused of sailing into North Korean territorial waters. Their release marked the end of what would later be called the Pueblo Incident.

The USS Pueblo was launched in 1944 and was originally assigned to the US Army as a light cargo ship. The Navy acquired her in 1966 and soon thereafter re-designated her an Auxiliary General Environmental Research vessel, or AGER. In reality, her purpose was intelligence-gathering. She was manned not just by Navy sailors and officers, but by National Security Agency technicians as well.

The Pueblo left Sasebo, Japan on January 11th, 1968 with orders to gather electronic intelligence in the Tsushima Straits, where there had been recent Soviet naval activity. The ship’s captain, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, was instructed to stay in international waters and avoid confrontations. The Pueblo was a small ship and her only armament was two Browning .50 caliber machine guns in unarmored positions. To make matters worse, her top speed was less than 13 knots, or about 15 miles per hour.

On January 23rd, 1968, the Pueblo was approached by a small North Korean naval vessel who demanded to know her nationality. The crew responded by raising the American flag, after which the North Korean ship ordered the Pueblo to either stop or be destroyed. Three North Korean PT boats were soon on the scene as well as two MiG-21 fighters. Unable to outrun her opponents, the crew began to destroy secret paperwork and equipment, but they did not have time to do a complete job. North Korea had just stolen an American spy ship in international waters, killing one American sailor in the process.

The Pueblo was able to get off a radio transmission to Seventh Fleet headquarters, but no help was sent. It is possible that President Lyndon Johnson was trying to avoid another war in Korea, especially with the Tet Offensive then raging in Vietnam. No matter the reason, once the crew was separated from their ship, a rescue mission became impossible.

The crew was starved and tortured over the course of the next eleven months until the US government agreed in writing that the Pueblo was spying on North Korea and offered an apology and a promise not to spy on the nation again. The crew was released at the DMZ between North and South Korea, after which the US then verbally retracted the entire admission of guilt.

A court of inquiry was held to determine what really happened that day in January, 1968. A court-martial was recommended for the captain, but this never happened and he continued to serve in the Navy until his retirement. The Pueblo remained in North Korean hands and is now a tourist destination in Pyongyang, the capitol of North Korea. The USS Pueblo is still a commissioned ship of the United States Navy.

General Patton Dies, December 21, 2005

Sorry, no transcript this evening.

Virginia Gives It Up, December 20, 1783

Today in 1783, the government of Virginia gave most of its western land holdings to the new federal government. This move, while seemingly small compared to later battles over the US Constitution, helped mold the thirteen distinct former colonies into a nation with common purpose.

The colonial charter which granted Virginia the right to exist also drew her boundaries. At the end of the Revolutionary War, these boundaries included the area that is today the state of Virginia plus all of West Virginia and much of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut all contested that land claim. For their part, Virginians claimed that since their colonial charter was older than anyone else’s, their claim superseded any that came later. In 1763, the British created the Proclamation Line, a north-south line running down the length of the Appalachian Mountains. European settlement west of the line was prohibited, so Virginia’s large land area meant very little. But with independence came the opening of the West (that is, the area between the Proclamation Line and the Mississippi) and the potential for the new states to accumulate wealth through the sale of land and the collection of taxes.

Some colonies had no western holdings, meaning that they would not get to share in the potential windfall. This became such a divisive issue that it had the potential to break apart the fragile union before it really got started. As far back as 1776, John Dickinson, a Pennsylvanian, had proposed that all the states cede their western lands to the federal government. This was intended to not only be an act of fairness, but it would also create federal land which could be granted to Revolutionary war veterans as a form of payment for their services, since many of them had fought for years with little or no pay.

Virginia opposed any such plan until 1783. With storm clouds of dissolution on the horizon, the Virginia legislature decided that a stable central government was more important than land. Thus, they became the first state to give up their claim on western property. Eventually, all the other states with land out west followed suit.

The Wright Brothers Take Flight, December 17, 1903

Today in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful flight of their new airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Although the flight only lasted 12 seconds and flew only 120 feet, it ushered in the age of flight.

At first glance, the Wright brothers don’t quite seem to be the inventor type. But anyone making that assumption would be wrong. They ran a bicycle repair shop (which they opened in 1892), but they also built and worked on printing presses. There were few things mechanical that the brothers could not fix or even make better.

The Wrights had a great interest in gliders. Many experimenters all over the world had built and flown (with varying degrees of success) gliders, but problems persisted. The big challenge was controlling a craft once it was airborne. Until this vexing problem could be solved, powered flight by a heavier-than-air plane would remain a fantasy.

The brothers chose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina instead of their hometown of Dayton, Ohio because Kitty Hawk offered steady winds year-round and many sand dunes to cushion a hard landing. They first visited the site in 1900 with an early glider design that faired poorly. They returned in 1901 with a more successful design. Still not happy with their product, they built a wind tunnel at home and tested more than 200 designs. When they again traveled to Kitty Hawk in 1902 with yet another glider, they made hundreds of successful flights and solved the problem of control by installing a moving rudder steering system. Finally, they were ready to add an engine.

Not happy with any of the engines currently in production, the Wrights designed a 12-horsepower model with the help of machinist Charles Taylor. Instead of mounting the engine to one of their gliders, they built an entirely new aircraft, then took it apart for the trip to Kitty Hawk. They arrived in the village in the fall of 1903 and, after putting their plane back together, tested the engine and steering mechanism. Their first attempt at flight came on December 14th, but the engine stalled on takeoff and the plane sustained some damage (although Orville, who was at the controls, was unharmed). They fixed the damage in three days and were ready to try again on the morning of December 17th.

Besides the Wrights, only five other human beings witnessed the event that morning. The craft used a monorail to keep it steady on the ground until it developed enough speed for takeoff. The first flight of 120 feet probably seemed anti-climactic to the onlookers, but history was being made. Orville and Wilbur flew three more flights that day, alternating turns behind the controls. The last flight covered 852 and lasted nearly one minute.

Aviation fired the world’s imagination in a very short time. In 1909, the US Army purchased a plane from the Wrights, the first of many they would buy from the newly-formed Wright Company. Only two decades would pass before commercial aviation came into being. Thirty-five years after that, human beings were traveling into space.

Unfortunately, Wilbur Wright did not live to see his invention become commonplace; he died of typhoid fever in 1912. Orville lived until 1948, long enough to witness the dawn of the jet age.

Amundsen Reaches The South Pole, December 14, 1911

Today in 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole. This feat marked the high point of Amundsen’s life as an explorer, a path that he had been following for almost all his adult life.

Amundsen’s polar adventures began in 1897 when he joined a Belgian expedition bound for the Antarctic. This expedition gained fame as the first group to ever spend a winter in the harsh environment. In 1903, Amundsen guided a ship through the famed Northwest Passage, that area of ocean between Canada and the Arctic Circle. The journey was long and treacherous, and when it was over, Amundsen and crew had accomplished another first.

The next step for Amundsen was a journey to the North Pole. As he prepared for the journey, he received word that Robert Peary had become the first man to visit the top of the world. Undaunted, Amundsen continued his preparation but instead of heading north, set sail for the Antarctica with the hope of being the first human to reach the South Pole.

Amundsen was not alone in his desire; British explorer Robert Scott was also on his way south. Amundsen set up his base camp in the Bay of Whales, 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott’s camp. Their means of travel varied greatly: Amundsen was using tried and true sled dogs while Scott employed motor sleds and Siberian ponies in addition to dogs. Both men set out with their teams in October.

Amundsen’s journey was relatively uneventful and after reaching the pole, the team headed back for base camp, which they reached in January, 1912. Scott arrived at the pole 35 days later, unaware of Amundsen’s success until he found his left-behind tent. On the return journey, weather brought tragedy to Scott’s team. The motor sleds broke down, the ponies proved unfit for rough weather and had to be shot and the dog teams had to be sent back on the journey to the pole. After losing two of his party, Scott and the other survivors became trapped by a terrible storm. A year later, their frozen bodies were discovered a mere 11 miles from their base camp.

Amundsen did not rest on his success but continued in his pursuit of other firsts. For example, he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible in 1926 just 72 hours after Richard Byrd flew over the same point in an airplane. Unfortunately, it was air travel which claimed Amundsen’s life in 1928 when he died trying to rescue a friend whose dirigible crashed at sea off the coast of Norway.

The Rape of Nanking Begins, December 13, 1937

Today in 1937, the city of Nanking in China fell to the Japanese Imperial Army. The next six weeks were marked by incredible brutality against the civilian population of the area. This period of time has come to be known as the Rape of Nanking. It has few equals in the annals of human history.

Japan first invaded Manchuria, China in 1931. At that time, the Chinese Civil War was underway. The Communists and Nationalists showed little interest in putting up a united front against the foreign invaders until 1937, when the two sides agreed to fight the Japanese. The Chinese Army, though possibly the largest in the world at that time, was no match for the well-equipped and trained Imperial Army. The Japanese quickly captured most of the major Chinese cities in the northeastern part of the country.

In August of 1937, the Japanese Army took heavy casualties during the fight for Shanghai. Before this battle, it was thought that China could be conquered in three months. But it was not until mid-November that the city was securely in Japanese hands. On December 1st, the Japanese Central China Area Army and their 10th Army were ordered to capture Nanking.

Much of what we know about the six weeks following the capture of Nanking has come to us from the few Westerners who remained in the city in hopes of protecting the civilian population. Some of them created what they called the Nanking Safety Zone, an area near the American embassy that was to remain demilitarized. The Zone was about the size of Central Park in New York City and, at first, the Japanese agreed to leave the area alone as long no weapons were found there. They soon broke that promise, however, in their zeal to find Chinese soldiers hiding among the civilian population of the city.

The hunt for soldiers dressed in civilian clothes was used as an excuse by the Japanese to commit all kinds of inhumane acts. Women were publicly raped while their families were forced to watch; thousands of young men were shot along the banks of the Yangtze River where their bodies would flow downstream to Shanghai. Dozens of books have been written about other horrendous things that went on in the city and surrounding area. I will not recount them here.

Though modern historians disagree on the exact number, it is safe to say that more than 100,000 civilians were massacred in the six-week period between December, 1937 and February, 1938. After the war was over and the Japanese were defeated, General Matsui Iwane, the man in charge of the Nanking operation, was given a sentence of death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Then and in the years since, some Japanese have claimed that all the deaths in Nanking were of a military nature. Eyewitness accounts state otherwise.

Those of us who live in North America or Europe tend to think of the atrocities of World War Two as being isolated to the actions of fanatical Nazis. But in truth, any society is capable of genocide on a massive scale; we only have to look at the former Yugoslavia for a modern example. It reminds us that the line between civility and barbarism is thin and, sometimes, not well guarded.

The First Trans-Atlantic Wireless Broadcast, Dec. 12, 1901

Today in 1901, Italian radio pioneer William Marconi successfully sent the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. This experiment proved, once and for all, the practicality of radio for commercial use and helped to ensure Marconi’s place among those who helped contribute to the invention of wireless communication.

Marconi was born in Italy in 1874, the son of an Italian landowner and his Irish wife. He was well-educated for his day and soon became interested in the experiments of Heinrich Hertz and Nikola Tesla. These men, and many others, all worked in the field before Marconi. However, it is safe to say that, while other people claimed to have actually invented radio, it was Marconi’s system which first became available for widespread use.

In the last decade of the 19th century, Marconi and others demonstrated the ability to send and receive radio signals over ever-increasing distances. However, the great minds of the day claimed that wireless communications would forever be limited to a maximum distance of 200 miles. The reasoning was that since the Earth is round and radio waves travel in straight lines from their transmission source, at some distance the radio waves would leave the atmosphere and go straight out into space as the surface of the Earth curved away beneath them.

While this theory is true to some degree, scientists and engineers of the early 20th century had little or no understanding of the ionosphere, that level of atmosphere that is now used by radio transmitters all over the world to propagate their signal. While a radio wave will indeed head for space, it often bounces off the ionosphere and is sent back to Earth hundreds or thousands of miles from the point of origin. This explains why, at night, you can sometimes pick up radio stations that are half a continent away. Marconi did not have a hidden knowledge of the ionosphere; he was merely trying to find out far a radio wave would travel.

Modern critics of Marconi’s trans-Atlantic experiment claim that he almost certainly did not successfully transmit the Morse-code symbol for the letter ‘S’ across the ocean. There are two mains reasons for this conclusion: first, the time of day was wrong and two, the frequency Marconi used was not optimal. According to them, it is more likely that Marconi heard random background noise and mistook it for the signal coming from England. A transmission of such a distance is very difficult even today under the same conditions. Regardless, Marconi’s star was on the rise.

By 1903, the Marconi Company was transmitting news across the Atlantic (the distance could be easily bridged at night) and Marconi’s equipment was soon reliable enough to be placed aboard ships. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909, sharing the honor with Karl Braun. On the day of his funeral in 1937, all BBC stations around the world were silent for two minutes in his honor.

The Battle Of The Falklands, December 8, 1914

Today in 1914, German and British cruisers met in battle near the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. This battle, though not as well-remembered as the Battle of Jutland two years later, is considered by some historians to be the most important naval engagement of the First World War.

On November 1st of that year, a British squadron suffered the first Royal Navy defeat since 1812 at the hands of a German squadron under the command of Maximilian von Spee off the coast of Coronel, Chile. During the battle, nearly 1,700 Royal Navy sailors were killed and two of her armored cruisers were sunk. The British Admiralty assembled a powerful modern force and went looking for the five German ships in the South Atlantic.

Admiral von Spee had experienced some success in that part of the world, where his primary mission was to destroy Allied merchant shipping. After the Battle of Coronel, von Spee planned a bold raid on the Falkland Islands, where a British coaling depot and radio station were located. He expected little resistance in light of his recent victory.

Von Spee had no way of knowing that a fast British squadron had already made the transit to the Falklands from the North Atlantic and were taking on coal. The squadron consisted of 8 ships: two new, fast battle cruisers, five other cruisers and one battleship from the last century. The battleship was grounded at Stanley in the Falklands to act as a sort of fortress, since she was too slow to keep up with the rest of the squadron during battle. Admiral von Spee’s force contained only five ships: two armored cruisers and three light cruisers. Their guns were smaller and fewer in number than their more modern British counterparts.

As the Germans approached the islands, they were surprised to find a battleship firing at them from extreme range. Soon, von Spee’s lookouts spotted the rest of the British squadron. Outgunned and outnumbered, von Spee prepared to engage with his two heavier ships, hoping to give the light cruisers time to escape.

It was not to be. A running gun battle ensued, one that the slower German ships could not hope to win. Four German ships out of five were sunk, including von Spee’s flagship, which went down with all hands. The tables had been turned from the Battle of Coronel: 1,871 German sailors died, including von Spee and two of his sons. The German naval command decided that raiding merchant vessels with surface ships was too dangerous and ceased the practice. Instead, they introduced the commerce raider, armed merchant vessels which also found success during the Second World War. They also intensified submarine operations; the experience learned there would nearly cripple the Allied effort 25 years later.

Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

Sorry, no transcript tonight.

Mail Call, December 6, 2005

I answer some listener questions. Sorry, no transcript tonight.

The Mary Celeste Found, December 4, 1872

Today in 1872, the Mary Celeste, a 103-foot brigantine, was found abandoned off the coast of Portugal. The crew of seven and the captain’s wife and daughter were missing. Abandoned ships had been found before on the open seas, but the Mary Celeste was different: her sails were still set as if a crew was still on board. The mystery that began that day more than 130 years ago is, today, still unsolved.

The Mary Celeste was spotted that December day by the Dei Gratia, a cargo ship loaded with petroleum. Captain Morehouse, her skipper, knew Benjamin Briggs, the captain of the Mary Celeste and had, in fact, dined with him in New York several weeks before. At 37, Briggs was an accomplished sailor and ship’s commander, so when the men of the Dei Gratia noticed the sails of the Celeste grow slack over and over again as if no one was in command, they knew something was wrong. Captain Morehouse sent a boarding party to the Celeste.

What the boarding party found upon searching the Celeste has become the stuff of legend (we’ll find out why later), but the inquiry that was held later at Gibraltar discovered that there was no good reason why the ship should have been abandoned. Only one of the pumps was working and there was over three feet of water in the bilge, but this was not unusual for a ship left unattended for days at sea. The entire below decks area of the ship was wet, but this was mainly due to the fact that two deck hatches had been left open. There was still six months’ worth of food aboard. The ship’s clock was not functioning and her compass was damaged, but the sextant and all the ship’s papers except for the ship’s log were missing. It was not known how many lifeboats the Celeste carried, but evidence suggested that at least one had been launched purposely and was not torn away by wind or waves. The ship’s cargo, 1700 barrels of alcohol, was intact, although later inspection would show nine of the barrels were empty. The alcohol, used to fortify wine, would become the focal point of investigation in later years.

Part of the Dei Gratia crew sailed the Celeste to Gibraltar where a prize claim was made on her. The admiralty court initially suspected the crew of the Dei Gratia of foul play, but no evidence existed to support the court’s suspicions. The court awarded prize money to the crew, but much less than might have otherwise been granted.

The story of the Mary Celeste may have faded into history had it not been for Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer who introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes. In 1884, Holmes published J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement, a short story based on the tale of the Celeste but with a great deal of fiction added to make the tale more consumer-friendly. As time went by, much of the story’s fiction began to be accepted as fact and helped keep the story alive for later generations.

We will probably never know what happened onboard the Mary Celeste, but one theory has now come to the fore. If the barrels of alcohol began to leak (you’ll recall that nine of the barrels were empty), fumes may have built up in the hold of the ship. When the hatches were opened to air the interior out, the violent rush of fumes might have convinced the captain that the ship was in mortal danger. Taking most of the ship’s papers with him, he might have ordered the crew and his family into the ship’s life raft with the intention of letting the ship’s hold air out while they stayed tied to the ship’s stern but safely away from the danger. If the line parted, the ship would’ve sailed away, leaving the crew to the mercy of the Atlantic. In 1873, a lifeboat with several bodies aboard washed up in Spain. Even though the bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, an American flag was in the lifeboat with them. But the sea is telling no tales.

The First Nuclear Chain Reaction, December 2, 1942

Sorry about the audio gap at the end of the 'cast and for the double posting of the episode!

Today in 1942, the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was produced at the University of Chicago. The man directing the project was Enrico Fermi, an Italian Nobel-winning physicist who had only lived in the United States for four years. This accomplishment was the product of years of methodical research and, sometimes, lucky guesswork on the part of researchers in both the United States and Europe.

The properties of atomic particles and radioactivity were little understood in the first three decades of the 20th century. The Curies had shown it was possible to produce artificial radioactivity and James Chadwick had discovered the neutron (which is essential to creating a fission reaction), but it was Enrico Fermi who did the first work with neutrons and their effect on uranium. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in 1938 while still an Italian citizen. His ability to travel was restricted by the fascists due to his value as a national security resource, but he was given permission to travel to Sweden to accept the prize. He and his wife, who was Jewish, left Italy and never returned. They found a home at Columbia University in New York City, where Fermi was able to continue his research with Niels Bohr, the man who first postulated the model of the atom that most of us born in the second half of the 20th century learned about in high school. Bohr was also the first person to suggest that a nuclear chain reaction was possible.

It didn’t take long for Fermi, Bohr and their colleagues to realize that an uncontrolled chain reaction could be used to create a weapon of fearsome destructive capabilities. Along with Albert Einstein, the team drafted a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing their opinion that the Nazis in Germany could, at some future time, develop an atomic bomb. A small amount of federal money was granted for more research in the area, but 1939 America was still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression and research money was scarce.

A little over two years later, all that changed. Once the United States entered World War Two in December, 1941, the venture that would be called the Manhattan Project received immediate and sustained funding. The goal was to research nuclear chain reactions and build an atomic weapon---before the Germans or Japanese did.

It was in this atmosphere of wartime urgency that Fermi and his team built an atomic pile on a squash court in the basement of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. When the pile went critical and was then brought back to sub-criticality, a coded message was sent by telephone to one of the Manhattan Project’s leaders, James Conant: “The Italian navigator had landed in the New World…the natives are friendly.”

The world would never be the same.