9 strange-but-true photos that capture Las Vegas' brief love affair with nuclear bombs.
On Jan. 27, 1951, a U.S. B-50 bomber dropped a nuclear warhead over the Nevada desert.
"A fantastically bright cloud is climbing upward like a huge umbrella," said John Kerrigan of The Washington Bulletin.
The bomb, codenamed Able, detonated about a thousand feet above the ground, illuminating the early morning sky.
The thunderous boom echoed through the surrounding mountains and woke up the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, some 45 miles away.
It was supposed to be a government secret. But despite what you hear on TV, what happens in Vegas rarely stays there.
A mushroom cloud during early atomic tests.Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
This is the story of Atomic Las Vegas, told through nine unforgettable photos.
1. Las Vegas took advantage of its proximity to atomic testing sites and turned it into a tourism boom. (Pun very much intended.)
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
"You brace yourself against the shock wave that follows an atomic explosion. "
Instead of saying "Pardon our dust," Las Vegas, in true Las Vegas fashion, doubled down.
Within days of the first test, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce issued a press release about their latest attraction — the nuclear testing site, even describing their town as "The Atomic City."
It quickly became, "Come, admire our dust, and see a show afterward."
2. Just over a year later, journalists were invited to take in a blast for themselves. The coast-to-coast broadcasts jump-started the atomic craze.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
"A heat wave comes first..."
Over the next 12 years, there was a detonation every three weeks, each one a source of immense pride, patriotism, and dollars for the city of Las Vegas.
3. Hotels offered panoramic views of the distant desert skyline for the optimum experience.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
4. The Chamber of Commerce published a calendar of the bomb schedule, including the best places to see the clouds.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
5. Tourists packed cars and drove out to the desert to get a closer look, carrying dinner in "atomic lunch boxes," of course.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
By 1954, nearly 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas each year. In 1950, the city's population was 24,624. By 1970, that number had ballooned to more than 125,000.
6. Women sported mushroom clouds as hairdos and as costumes in beauty pageants.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
They were found on billboards, marquees, and school yearbooks. One was even on the county seal.
7. The Nevada Test Site wasn't just a boom for travelers. The proving ground flooded the area with federal funds, and the site employed close to 100,000 men and women.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
8. But despite the economic and population booms, there was some fallout (literally and figuratively) from the Nevada Test Site.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
"...then the shock, strong enough to knock an unprepared man down. "
The government coordinated a very successful public relations campaign to downplay the potential danger and highlight the patriotic aims of this Cold War-era pursuit, even handing out guides to Nevada schoolchildren.
"A committee said there would be little danger to Vegas," Karen Green, curator at the Atomic Testing Museum, told the National Endowment for the Humanities. They said "if people were exposed they could take showers.”
But many working onsite and those who lived close by — who call themselves as "Downwinders" — developed serious illnesses and cancers due to exposure. Many saw their children, friends, and loved ones die prematurely as a result. In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which presented families monetary compensation and a much-deserved apology.
9. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty put an end to above-ground nuclear experiments in 1963.
Photo via Las Vegas News Bureau, used with permission.
"Then, after what seems like hours, the man-made sunburst fades away."
The tests continued underground for decades, but the public displays were complete. No more fanfare. No more pageantry and kitsch.
235 bombs later, the party — and this peculiar era in modern-American history — was over.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.