The United Kingdom successfully conducted its first nuclear test, becoming the world's third state with nuclear weapons.

Operation Hurricane

1952 British atomic bomb test in Western Australia

Operation Hurricane was the first test of a British atomic device. A plutonium implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island, in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. With the success of Operation Hurricane, the United Kingdom became the…

List of states with nuclear weapons

Nine sovereign states are generally understood to possess nuclear weapons, though only eight formally acknowledge possessing them. In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons, these are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and…