In 1952, the United States tested the first full-scale hydrogen bomb, unleashing a thermonuclear explosion so powerful it completely erased an island from the map. The blast produced a fireball miles ...

In 1961, the Soviet Union detonated Tsar Bomba, a hydrogen bomb with a 50-megaton yield—the largest explosion ever created by humans. The blast was about 3,800 times stronger than Hiroshima and ...