If you were in Los Angeles in the early 1950s, you might have become accustomed to ‘early sunrises’ around 4 or 5 in the morning. Those ‘sunrises’ were flashes on the horizon from atomic blast tests hundreds of miles away in Nevada.
Photographers would scramble to rooftops around Downtown and the San Fernando Valley to capture images of the events and one, on April 22, 1952, was even broadcast live on local television stations in L.A. A collection of these images, bathed in eerie glow appears on Amusing Planet.
While it seems pretty crazy by contemporary standards, back then, seeing the sky light up from a nuclear weapon detonation was a fairly commonplace event. There were 100 known atmospheric tests completed at the Nevada Test Site, each resulting in massive mushroom clouds.
Scroll through and try to imagine a time when this type of thing seemed normal in American life.
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