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Manhattan Project

World War II American R&D program that produced the first nuclear weapons

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The Manhattan Project was a massive scientific and industrial effort by the United States during World War II that successfully developed the first nuclear weapons. It matters because it fundamentally changed warfare and global politics by introducing nuclear technology, which continues to shape international relations and military strategy today.

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Commons category: Manhattan Project
start time: 1939-00-00
end time: 1946-00-00

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The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$2 billion (equivalent to about $28 billion in 2024).

From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs. The Army program was designated the Manhattan District, as its first headquarters were in Manhattan; the name gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. The project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys.