1964Oct, 16
China detonates its first nuclear weapon.
Project 596, (Miss Qiu (Chinese: 邱小姐, Qiū Xiǎojiě) as the callsign, Chic-1 by the US intelligence agencies) was the first nuclear weapons test conducted by the People's Republic of China, detonated on 16 October 1964, at the Lop Nur test site. It was a uranium-235 implosion fission device made from weapons-grade uranium (U-235) enriched in a gaseous diffusion plant in Lanzhou.The atomic bomb was a part of China's "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program. It had a yield of 22 kilotons, comparable to the Soviet Union's first nuclear bomb RDS-1 in 1949 and the American Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. With the test, China became the fifth nuclear power in the world and the first Asian nation to possess nuclear capability. This was the first of 45 successful nuclear tests China conducted between 1964 and 1996, all of which occurred at the Lop Nur test site.
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Events on 1964
- 6Mar
Muhammad Ali
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali. - 26Apr
Tanzania
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania. - 12Jun
Nelson Mandela
Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa. - 12Aug
Apartheid in South Africa
South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies. - 28Nov
Lyndon B. Johnson
Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.