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The Crime

Captain Matthew Rhem of the Signal Corps sent a greeting from Gen. Willis D. Crittenberger, commander of the First Army, to the armed forces throughout the world. The message circled the globe in one-eighth of a second and when it returned to Governors Island it activated a miniature atomic pile. The splitting uranium atoms then exploded a magnesium bomb, severing a ribbon to release pigeons from a coop. --New York Times, May 19, 1951

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