Today in History; 'France Tests Its First Atomic Bomb'

1960: A nuclear test explosion uses a nuclear weapon in an experiment to observe its destructive power or to demonstrate the testing nation's strength. Of the roughly two thousand nuclear test explosions in the twentieth century, about half were detonated by the U.S., followed by the Soviet Union, France, Britain, China, India and Pakistan. The documentary Trinity and Beyond (1996) by Peter Kuran has a lot of rare footage of nuclear testing as well as interviews with key figures in the U.S. program.