October 29

Are You Sure ...

Long Shot nuclear weapon test: image with date, location, maps.

• ... that the Long Shot nuclear weapons test at Amchitka, Alaska (51.43709°N 179.18032°E) was the largest underground explosion ever detonated by the United States?

File:Are You Sure (29 Oct 2020).png

Screenshot: Are You Sure (October 29, 2020)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1675: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.

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  1732: Physicist and academic Laura Bassi is granted professorship in philosophy by the University of Bologna, thus also making her a member of the Academy of the Sciences.

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  1783: Mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Jean le Rond d'Alembert dies. He made contributions to mathematics and physics, including D'Alembert's formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation.

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  1965: Long Shot nuclear weapons test at Amchitka, Alaska (51.43709°N 179.18032°E). It was the largest underground explosion ever detonated by the United States. Amchitka Island, Alaska (80 kilotons). The Department of Defense occupied Amchitka from 1964 to 1966, with the AEC providing the device, measuring instruments, and scientific support.

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  2004: Mathematician and entomologist Peter Twinn dies. During the Second World War, he was the first professional mathematician recruited by the British Government Code and Cypher School. Twinn was also the first British cryptographer to read a German military Enigma message, having obtained vital information from Polish cryptanalysts in July 1939. Twinn said that "It was a trifling exercise, but I repeat for the umpteenth time, no credit to me."