+
Heroes

When was the last time America set off a nuclear weapon? The answer is surprising.

Do you know when the last time the United States fired a nuclear weapon?

The bombs that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only nuclear weapons to have ever been used against a population, but they're not the only ones America's set off. Throughout the 20th century, the United States conducted well over 1,000 nuclear weapons tests.

America set off the Trinity test — their first nuclear weapon — on July 16, 1945. But here's an interesting question:When was the most recent time they set one off?


It must be a while ago, right? The concept of American nuclear weapons testing seems like a relic of the 1950s, back when we nuked entire atolls and fearless (or maybe clueless) tourists would travel down from Las Vegas to watch the detonations.

But guess what? The last American nuke went off in the '90s. Yep, the 1990s.

You know, the era that not only saw the final dismantling of the Berlin Wall and an economic boom, but also gave us Goosebumps books, Tweety Bird T-shirts, the Nintendo 64, and introduced the world to the cultural dreadnought known as Pokémon.

Yes, this was a thing. Image from Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images.

The reason we didn't have any more mushroom clouds over the Vegas strip wasn't because they stopped — it's because they started setting the bombs off underground instead. The 1,030th — and last — American nuclear test took place under the Nevada desert on Sept. 23, 1992.

If you're 43 now, you might have been just months away from casting your first presidential ballot then.

Photo by Mark Lyons/Liaison.

That November, Bill Clinton would beat Ross Perot and George H.W. Bush to become the 42nd president of the United States. If you're 43 now, that means you probably turned 18 around that time. Who did you vote for?

38-year-olds: You would have been old enough to catch the premiere of "Batman Returns" by yourself.

The Penguin and Frank Reynolds from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are pretty much the same character. Photo from Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

PG-13 never looked so weird. This year also saw the release of Disney's "Aladdin," "The Muppet Christmas Carol," and "Reservoir Dogs."

If you’re 30 now, you were probably in kindergarten then.

Image from iStock.

Though nuclear testing might seem like something from the historical archive, it's important to remember the use of nuclear weapons is not that far behind us.

In 1996, President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited any country from testing nuclear weapons. Many countries, including the U.S., have also pushed for nuclear disarmament altogether, arguing that the only way to ensure nobody uses nuclear weapons is for nobody to have them in the first place.

Still, we have a ways to go. It's estimated that about 15,000 nuclear weapons are still around, 6,800 of which are in the United States. While Trump has said he supports abolishing nuclear weapons, he's also talked about using nuclear weapons against ISIS and arming countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

Though it's been years since America has used a nuclear weapon, it's only through continued effort that disarmament can happen.

Joy

Homeless man catches family's two children and dogs dropped from burning apartment building

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them.'"

Man catches entire family as they jump from burning building.

House fires are devastating for families. In a matter of minutes, you could lose all of your belongings and a place to live, or worse, you could lose loved ones. A family in Phoenix, Arizona, recently found themselves facing the reality of their own home in flames. Claudia Jimenez told CBS News that she woke up trapped in her burning apartment with her two daughters, with nothing to do but yell for help in the hopes that someone would hear her.

The mom's screams were answered by Joe Hollins, a homeless man who was camping nearby with his wife. Hollins didn't hesitate to try to find a way to help. With no way out and the fire department still nowhere on the scene, Jimenez had to trust the stranger who was standing below.

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them,'" Jimenez told CBS.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

Keep ReadingShow less

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

12-year-old Texas girl saves her family from carbon monoxide poisoning

She knew something was wrong with her mom and brother, which wound up saving her whole family.

Fort Worth 12-year-old helps save family from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is called a silent killer for a reason. Many people don't realize they're experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning before it's too late. The gas is colorless and odorless and tends to have a sedating effect that causes people to sleep through the fatal poisoning. Having carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most effective ways to identify the gas before it's too late to get out of the house, but not every home has one.

A little girl in Fort Worth, Texas, experienced a terrifying encounter with the deadly gas, but her quick actions saved her entire family. Jaziyah Parker is being held up as a hero after she realized something was wrong with her family members and called for help.

The girl called 911 after she noticed her mom pass out. On the call with the dispatcher, Jaziyah says she thinks her mother has died before explaining that there was something now wrong with her baby brother, who was just 5-months-old.

Keep ReadingShow less