The beauty and terror of Oppenheimer's first-ever nuclear test explosion, in the words of those who witnessed it

• On July 16, 1945, at 5:29 a.m., the world's first nuclear weapon test was conducted in New Mexico.
• A team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer labored in secret on what was codenamed the Manhattan Project.
• Years later, those who witnessed the explosion described their awe and terror in interviews.

Before the world's first nuclear weapons test, the scientists who created the atom bomb debated whether the explosion might be so powerful that it would ignite the atmosphere and destroy life on Earth.