Manhattan Project was created by the United States government in 1942 to design and build the first atomic bomb. The official agency that produced the bomb was the Army Corps of Engineers’ Manhattan Engineer District, commanded by Major General Leslie R. Groves. Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the design and building of the bomb. Industrial and research activities took place at such sites as Columbia University, New York; Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and the University of Chicago.
The idea for the project began in 1939, shortly before World War II began. United States scientists feared Germany might be the first country to develop an atomic bomb. They alerted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to this possibility. Manhattan Project scientists successfully exploded the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
See also Nuclear weapon; Oppenheimer, J. Robert; Rotblat, Joseph.
