by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Manhattan Project, the Allied
effort to develop atomic bombs during World War II. It was released to
the public on August 12, 1945, just days after the atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Smyth was commissioned to write the report by
Major General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. The
Smyth Report was the first official account of the development of the
atomic bombs and the basic physical processes behind them. Since
anything in the declassified Smyth Report could be discussed openly, it
focused heavily on basic nuclear physics and other information which was
either already widely known in the scientific community or easily
deducible by a competent scientist. It omitted details about chemistry,
metallurgy, and ordnance, ultimately giving a false impression that the
Manhattan Project was all about physics. The Smyth Report sold almost
127,000 copies in its first eight printings, and was on the New York
Times best-seller list from mid-October 1945 until late January 1946. It
has been translated into over 40 languages.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyth_Report>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian
Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra>
1676:
Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag
sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King
Philip's War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War>
1883:
The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died
at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga>
1985:
Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into the ridge of Mount
Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in
the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123>
1990:
American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete
skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota,
US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cicada:
Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes
wide apart on the head and transparent, well-veined wings.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cicada>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual
ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors ... This is
not mere allegory, but an eternal memory.
--Erwin Schrödinger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger>
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