Dawn of the Atomic Age, July 16, 1945: Trinity Test

The Trinity test was the dawn of the atomic age. (Image courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratories.) L iving History: WASHINGTON, July 16, 2009 -- On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, the world's first atomic bomb exploded 100 feet over a portion of the southern New Mexico desert known as the Jomada del Muerto, the Journey of the Dead Man. As the orange and yellow fireball stretched up and spread, a second column, narrower than the first, rose and flattened into a mushroom s