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On March 1, 1954 the United States detonated a hydrogen bomb on the Pacific island of Bikini. It was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States, with a yield of 15 megatons which far exceeded the expected 4 to 6 megatons. This bomb was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II. The bomb formed a fireball almost four and a half miles across within a second. This fireball was visible on the Kwajalein atoll over 250 miles away. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 47,000 feet and a diameter of 7 miles in about a minute and eventually spread about 100 miles across. The cloud contaminated more than seven thousand miles of the surrounding Pacific Ocean and seriously affected the crew of a Japanese fishing boat that was within 80 miles of the test zone. Two hundred sixty-four people were exposed to large doses of radiation because the explosion and fall-out were much greater than expected. Hopalong Cassidy was the title character in a hugely popular television series of the time. Hopalong could always be counted on to come to the rescue, but even he could not help with the H-bomb.

 

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"Any Cowboys, Gran'pa?" cartoon on H-bomb in Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper

publisher   Greenfield Recorder-Gazette
illustrator   Reginald [Reg] W. Manning (1905-1986)
date   Apr 7, 1954
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
width   6.75"
height   8.75"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Illustration
accession #   #L07.016


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See Also...

"800 Troops See Dummy 'A-Bomb' At Fort Devens" article in Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper

WWII CD Warden's Report Form

WWII Air Raid Warning Instructions

"Say Russian Atomic Particles Falling On Japan" article in the Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper

"Britain Gets Jitters Over Hydrogren Bomb" article in Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper


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