president nixon once ordered a nuclear strike on north korea while drunk.

a one-night firebomb attack on tokyo by the united states in 1945 killed 180,000 mostly poor civilians - more than twice as many as were killed by the atomic bomb the u.s. dropped on hiroshima.

on 3/1/54, the u.s. tested a nuclear weapon on bikini atoll in the pacific ocean. the physicists who designed the bomb estimated that it would produce a blast of roughly 5 megatons - the equivalent of 5 million tons of conventional explosives such as dynamite.

the actual explosion was 15 megatons - more than 1,000 times greater than the blasts that destroyed hiroshima and nagasaki in japan. the fireball alone was 4 miles across, and spewed radioactive debris around the globe. it left a 1 mile wide crater, and people hundreds of miles away suffered radiation burns.

in 1961, russia detonated a nuclear weapon that was more than 3 times larger. currently, 8 different countries have nuclear stockpiles estimated at about 20,000 such bombs.

in 1955 and 1965, the u.s. army blew radioactive dust over poor black neighborhoods in st. louis to test its effect in case of nuclear war, and lied about the tests until 1994. the dust caused deaths and cases of cancer for decades.

shortly after a nuclear explosion, the sudden heat causes sticky, black, radioactive rain.

when hiroshima was bombed, the blood of most of the people who died evaporated in their heads before they could even see the blast.

'countervalue targeting' is a military term for deliberately targeting civilian population areas so as to inflict the greatest possible loss of life. most often associated with nuclear weapons.

in 1946, people who used kodak film complained that, when developed, the film created cloudy pictures. when kodak looked into it, they discovered that the corn husks used as packaging were radioactive due to fallout from nuclear weapons tests.

it helps to wear white if you are outside the immediate blast radius of a nuclear weapon. this is because any dark colors in your clothing are burned into your skin. also, any jewelry that you wear, including watches, will become so hot that they will burn right into your skin. survivors of hiroshima and nagasaki also related that less lucky victims of those bombs had their entire faces and eyes burned away, leaving only cracked, blackened skin and open mouths.

according to data gathered during u.s. nuclear weapon testing, a nuclear weapon set off above the north pole would cause an electromagnetic pulse across the northern hemisphere, a blinding aurora, and a radiation belt that would disable all low-orbit satellites and last for years.

the united states coast guard cutter bramble was used during operation crossroads - that is, live testing of atomic weapons on surface ships at bikini atoll.

nuclear explosions have occurred in new mexico, nevada, colorado, alaska, and mississippi.

godzilla was created to represent the united states. the first film came out less than 10 years after the u.s. dropped nuclear warheads on hiroshima and nagasaki, killing more than 225,000 civilians. those not killed by the initial blast died within weeks of radiation burns and radiation sickness.

soviet navy officer vasil arkhipov is the only reason that you are alive today. during the cuban missile crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo while his submarine was being attacked with depth charges by the u.s. fleet. if the torpedo had launched, it would have led to nuclear war between russia and the united states. the resulting radioactive fallout would likely have killed everything but cockroaches and tardigrades.

2 nuclear bombs fell on goldsboro, nc (both of them ours). the first broke apart on its way down. the 2nd went through 5 out of 6 steps to detonation, including deploying its parachute and arming itself, but failed to go off.