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From today's featured article The Los Alamos Laboratory was a secret laboratory in a remote part of New Mexico established by the Manhattan Project during World War II and operated by the University of California. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. The laboratory was designing a plutonium gun-type fission weapon called Thin Man until April 1944, when it determined that the nuclear reactor-bred plutonium in the bomb could predetonate before the core was fully assembled. Robert Oppenheimer reorganized the laboratory, and orchestrated an all-out effort on an alternative design, an implosion-type nuclear weapon called Fat Man. The gun-type Little Boy was developed using uranium-235. The laboratory also built an aqueous homogeneous reactor, and researched the hydrogen bomb. The Fat Man design was used in the Trinity nuclear test on 16 July 1945, and laboratory personnel participated in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as pit crews, weaponeers and observers. Oppenheimer was succeeded as director by Norris Bradbury in December 1945. After the war, assembly activities moved to Sandia. The Los Alamos Laboratory became the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1947. (Full article...) Recently featured: God of War III Noye's Fludde Blade Runner Did you know... Muhammad I and his Castilian ally ... that Muhammad I of Granada (pictured), founder of the last Muslim state in Spain, helped Castile take Córdoba and Seville from the Muslims? ... that Publishers Weekly called Why We Want You to Be Rich authors Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki "a strangely winning combination"? ... that Canadian theoretical physicist Helen Freedhoff was doctoral advisor to Schrödinger's grandson? ... that Tallinn Central Library lends Estonian-language e-books to people in any part of the world? ... that Sam Panopoulos "invented" the Hawaiian pizza? ... that the city hall of Bellevue, Washington, was previously a Qwest telecommunications office? ... that the BBC medical drama series Casualty received criticism for a series 29 episode which featured a crash that viewers believed resembled the 2014 Glasgow bin lorry crash? ... that mail artist Pauline Smith created the Adolf Hitler Fan Club?

In the news Separation of the iceberg from the Larsen C Ice Shelf Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to receive the Fields Medal, dies at the age of 40. Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese pro-democracy activist, political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies aged 61. Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is sentenced to nearly ten years in prison over the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal. A giant iceberg, covering approximately 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi), breaks away (separation pictured) from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. After covering 450 kilometres (280 mi), the Turkish March for Justice concludes in Istanbul at a rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Ongoing Recent deaths: Chuck Blazer Anton Nossik On this day... July 16: Feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Roman Catholic Church) Mission San Diego de Alcalá 1769 – Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá (pictured), the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain. 1782 – Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail made its premiere, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the comment that it had "too many notes". 1931 – Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first constitution, intended to officially replace the Fetha Nagast, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages. 1983 – A British Airways Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashed in the Celtic Sea in thick fog, killing 20 of the 26 on board, and sparking a review of helicopter safety in the United Kingdom. 2007 – A magnitude 6.6 MW earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. Fulrad (d. 784) · Anna Vyrubova (b. 1884) · Assata Shakur (b. 1947) More anniversaries: July 15 July 16 July 17

Today's featured picture The Plumb-pudding in Danger (1805), an editorial cartoon by James Gillray showing the world being carved up into spheres of influence between William Pitt and Napoleon. It caricatures overtures made by Napoleon in January 1805 for a reconciliation with Britain during the War of the Third Coalition. Martin Rowson deems it "probably the most famous political cartoon of all time – it has been stolen over and over and over again by cartoonists ever since." Illustration: James Gillray Recently featured: SG-1000 Crown of Silla Kodiak bear

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