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1905

• E=mc², Albert Einstein establishes equivalence of mass and energy

1911

• Ernest Rutherford probes the structure of the atom

1932

• James Chadwick discovers neutrons

1934

• Enrico Fermi nearly discovers nuclear fission while bombarding uranium with neutrons. The sample was wrapped in aluminium foil, preventing him from detecting the splitting of the atom

1941

• Manhattan Project begins at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US

1942

• Manhattan Project achieves first controlled nuclear fission reaction in a basement in Chicago, US

1945

• 16 July – first atomic bomb is tested in Los Alamos

• 6 August – US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

• 9 August – US drops another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan

1949

• Soviet Union (USSR) tests its first atomic bomb

1952

• The world’s first hydrogen bomb is tested by the US on a remote Pacific Ocean atoll. The nuclear fusion device is 500 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki

• The United Kingdom detonates its first atomic bomb

1954

• US launches first nuclear-powered submarine

1956

• The first nuclear reactor to provide electricity to a national grid opens in Calder Hall, England

1957

• United Nations establishes the International Atomic Energy Agency, its nuclear watchdog

1959

• US operationally deploys first intercontinental ballistic missile

1960

• France tests its first nuclear bomb

1964

• China tests its first nuclear bomb

1968

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is signed

1974

• India detonates a “non-weapon” nuclear explosion underground

1979

• Israel and South Africa suspected of jointly testing a nuclear bomb

• A cooling problem causes the meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, US

1980

• Last known atmospheric nuclear test is conducted by China

1986

• The reactor meltdown and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR (now Ukraine) becomes the worst nuclear accident in history

1991

• The Cold War, which started after World War Two, ends with the collapse of the USSR. Disarmament accords follow during the 1990s, ending the US-Soviet nuclear arms race

1998

• India conducts five nuclear weapons tests and Pakistan conducts six

1999

• US Senate rejects Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

• 70 people are exposed to radiation in the Tokaimura nuclear facility in Japan

2002

• North Korea claims it has a nuclear weapons programme

2003

• North Korea withdraws from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

• Libya ends its nuclear weapons programme

2004

• Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is exposed as supplying a global black-market in nuclear technology

2005

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review meeting in May ends with no agreement

Adapted from New Ů��С��Ƶ print edition, 16 July 2005