Apr. 27, 1962 - The U.S. set off two nuclear explosions today — one in the atmosphere in the Pacific, the other underground in Nevada. The explosion in the atmosphere, the second in the test series in the central Pacific, took place shortly after dawn in the vicinity of Christmas Island. As in the first atmospheric explosion on Wednesday, the nuclear device was dropped from an airplane and produced an explosion in the “intermediate yield range.” This would mean that the device had an explosive force somewhere between 20,000 tons (20 kilotons) and 1 million tons (one megaton) of TNT.
