Mao’s China · TURNING POINT ·
China’s first nuclear test (1964)
On the Mao’s China map as “Lop Nur”
16 Oct 1964 — China explodes its first atomic bomb in the Xinjiang desert. The device was codenamed 596, after June 1959, the month Moscow reneged on its promise to supply a sample bomb. It came two days after Khrushchev’s fall, and it made China the fifth nuclear power, largely without the help it had been promised.
- When
- Type
- Turning point
- Chapter
- Recovery after the Great Leap (chapter 8 of Mao’s China)
- Atlas
- The People’s Republic under Mao, 1949–1976
Chapter 8 is part of membership. WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.
In the same chapter
Related
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Join the Dispatch — a short welcome series, then a letter when a new atlas opens — and the printable study guide for The People’s Republic under Mao is yours now, free.
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME