France Joins Nuclear Club: Gerboise Bleue Detonates
France detonated its first nuclear weapon, code-named Gerboise Bleue (Blue Jerboa), at the Reggane test site in the Algerian Sahara on February 13, 1960. The device yielded 70 kilotons, more than three times the power of the Hiroshima bomb and the largest first test by any nuclear power. President Charles de Gaulle had made nuclear independence the cornerstone of his foreign policy, insisting that France could not depend on American nuclear protection. The 'force de frappe' would give France an autonomous deterrent and restore its status as a world power. The test was conducted in Algeria, which was still a French territory but in the midst of a violent independence war. Algeria gained independence two years later, and France moved its nuclear testing to French Polynesia, where it conducted 193 tests over the next thirty-six years. The Saharan test sites remain contaminated, and Algerian victims of radioactive fallout have never received compensation.
February 13, 1960
66 years ago
Key Figures & Places
France
Wikipedia
Nuclear test
Wikipedia
Gerboise Bleue
Wikipedia
Nuclear weapons testing
Wikipedia
Gerboise Bleue (nuclear test)
Wikipedia
Reggane
Wikipedia
Algeria
Wikipedia
Bomba atómica
Wikipedia
Algerian War
Wikipedia
Tanezrouft
Wikipedia
Französische Kernwaffentests in Algerien
Wikipedia
Algerische Sahara
Wikipedia
Sahara
Wikipedia
What Else Happened on February 13
Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII formalized their alliance by signing the Diploma Ottonianum, which granted the papacy sovereignty over vast territories in cent…
The Mongols destroyed Baghdad in seven days. Hulegu Khan's army killed somewhere between 200,000 and a million people — the chronicles can't agree because the s…
The central tower of Ely Cathedral collapsed in 1322. Nobody died. The monks were asleep when 400 tons of Norman stonework came down at 2 a.m. They woke to rubb…
Genoese warships crushed a combined Venetian, Aragonese, and Byzantine fleet during a violent storm in the Bosporus. This tactical victory secured Genoese domin…
Edward IV signed a treaty with the Lord of the Isles in 1462 that technically made half of Scotland an English vassal state. John MacDonald controlled the weste…
Brussels buried its river. The Zenne ran through the city center for centuries — open, filthy, carrying sewage and industrial waste. By the 1860s, cholera outbr…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.