The first nuclear bombing occurred in July 1945 on Japan. In that war, 43,000 tons of bombs were dropped and a quarter of a million people died. The bomb, Enola Gay, held a 4-ton nuclear device and 12 pounds of uranium. It was dropped over Hiroshima Japan at 8:15 a.m. The bomb dropped over Hiroshima was so powerful, it broke windows 16 miles away from ground zero (point bomb was dropped). Nuclear bombs can create heat energy that reaches temperatures that are tens of millions of degrees or the temperature of the interior of the sun.
Shortly After World War Two, Russia and the United States got involved in a race to develop better bombs. This race can be known as "The Great Arms Race". This race and the want for better bombs created the hydrogen bomb or commonly know H-bomb. The H-bomb was first thought of in the 1920's. In 1950, President Truman ordered research on H-bomb development. Secretly, a Russian spy was passing this information to the Russians for years. The race for a better bomb intensified because of this.
In the 1950's, the Russians and Americans tested preliminary devices. On March 1, 1954, the U.S. tested its first real hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The explosion was equal to 15 tons of TNT and was the largest bomb the U.S. tested. Hydrogen bombs are measured in meganots or millions of tons of TNT. In 1961, the biggest Soviet bomb was tested and was equal to 60 meganots.
In 1962, Russia and the U.S. tested more than 100 bombs. An agreement was made in 1963 to end all aboveground testing of bombs and was signed by over 100 countries. China and France were the only countries that continued to test bombs in the atmosphere. In 1974, India produced a 12-kiloton explosion underground. Modern nuclear warheads can weigh as little as 100 pounds. They can also be fired in 8-inch artillery shells. This is how nuclear technology began and how it improved.
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