Fermi Dies: Architect of the Nuclear Age Passes
Enrico Fermi left Italy in 1938 the night he received the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, collecting his family and flying to New York instead of returning home. Mussolini's racial laws had targeted his Jewish wife. In Chicago in 1942, under the squash courts at the University of Chicago, he achieved the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. He used 45,000 graphite bricks, 6 tons of uranium metal, and 50 tons of uranium oxide. And then he went to lunch.
November 28, 1954
72 years ago
What Else Happened on November 28
King Guntram of Burgundy formally adopted his nephew Childebert II as his successor, unifying the fractured Merovingian kingdoms under a single line of successi…
Shi Jingtang didn't win his throne — he bought it. To secure Liao's military backing against Emperor Fei of Later Tang, he handed over the strategically critica…
A bishop and a count. That's who Pope Urban II trusted to command one of history's most audacious military campaigns. Adhemar of Le Puy wasn't a general — he wa…
Skanderbeg seized the fortress of Kruja by tricking the Ottoman garrison with a forged sultan’s decree, reclaiming his ancestral lands. By raising the double-he…
Emperor Lê Thánh Tông launched a massive naval and land invasion against the Champa Kingdom, dismantling the Vijaya capital. This decisive campaign shattered Ch…
Magellan's fleet pushed through a treacherous 373-mile channel at Cape Virgenes, driving three surviving ships into the vast, calm waters he named the Pacific O…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.