Amazing original front page of the 'home edition' of the Topeka State Journal from August 6, 1945, 16 x 21, covering the first-ever use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, signed and inscribed in the upper margin in fountain pen, "Fur Dr. Volkman, A. Einstein, 45." The banner headline reads: "Incredible Power in New Bomb." Many columns offer news on the bomb and its aftermath, with sensational headers: "Bomb Packs Punch of 2,000 B-29s," "Source of Sun's Energy Tapped for New Bomb," and "Energy of Atoms Unlocked by Army in 'Secret Weapon.'" Impressively double-matted and framed with a portrait of Einstein and an engraved plaque to an overall size of 30 x 35. In fine condition.
On August 2nd, 1939 Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the efforts of Nazi Germany to purify uranium which could be used to build an atom bomb. This helped to spur America's own efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in the Manhattan Project, led by Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves. On July 16, 1945, the 'Trinity' test was conducted south of Los Alamos in New Mexico—the first-ever detonation of an atomic bomb. Mere weeks later, on August 6, 1945—the date of this newspaper—the bomb known as 'Little Boy' exploded over Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, a second atomic bomb, 'Fat Man,' detonated over Nagasaki—bringing about the end of World War II. Although Einstein did not invent the bomb, his theories laid the foundation for it. In November 1954, less than a year before his death, he made the statement: 'I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that the Atomic Bomb be made, but there is some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them.'
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