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On December 28, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the Manhattan Project, a secret initiative to develop atomic bombs in response to fears of Nazi Germany's nuclear capabilities. The project, which began with the Einstein-Szilard letter in 1939 and received significant funding, culminated in the Trinity test in July 1945 and the subsequent bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

J. Robert Oppenheimer led the weapons development, with thousands of workers contributing, many unaware of the project's true purpose.