The US tested the TX-17 thermonuclear bomb for the first time in Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands.
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The US SM-65 Atlas missile completed the first successful intercontinental ballistic missile launch.
The Soviet Union started mass producing the AK-47 assault rifle.
Smith and Wesson patented the first metal bullet cartridges.
The largest US underground bomb was detonated on Amchitka Island, a remote Alaskan island.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill went public that Britain had its first atomic bomb and planned to test it in Australia by the end of the year.
