December 2

  • U.S. ATOMIC BOMB PROJECT TAKES OFF

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Chicago, Illinois • December 2, 1942 In November 1942 the world’s first artifi­cial nuclear reactor was assem­bled piece­meal below the bleachers of an un­used and un­heated double racquet­ball (squash) court at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Field. The impe­tus for building an Amer­i­can nuclear reactor, which con­sisted (mostly) of a huge pile of…

  • MUSTARD GAS TRAGEDY IN BARI HARBOR

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Bari, Italy • December 2, 1943 World War I combatants had used a variety of poi­son gases on each other ranging from inca­pa­ci­tating and tem­po­rarily blinding the enemy to gases that burned the body, destroyed the lungs, and lique­fied tis­sues. Some­times their use had un­in­tended con­se­quences, as when the gases inflicted casu­al­ties on the users…