A 50-year nuclear testing chronology on the Marshall Islands Web site.
1946
March
The U.S. Navy evacuates 167 Bikini Islanders to Rongerik Atoll, 125 miles to the east, to make way for the first post-World War II nuclear weapons tests.
May
As a safety measure, islanders from [nearby] atolls are relocated for the duration of Operation Crossroads.
July
Operation Crossroads is launched with [two] nuclear tests at Bikini. Both are Hiroshima-size atomic tests.
1947
July
The Marshall Islands and the rest of Micronesia become a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory administered by the U.S. Among other obligations, the U.S. undertakes to "protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources."
December
Enewetak Atoll is selected for the second series of U.S. nuclear tests, and the Enewetak people are quickly moved to Ujelang Atoll.
1948
March
On the verge of starvation, the Bikinians are taken off Rongerik Atoll and moved to Kwajalein, where they stay … while a new home is found for them.
April
Operation Sandstone begins at Enewetak and includes three atomic tests. The Bikini community moves to southern Kili, a single island with no protected lagoon or anchorage.
1951
April
Operation Greenhouse starts at Enewetak. Four atomic tests are conducted.
November
Operation Ivy opens at Enewetak and includes the first test of a hydrogen device. The … test vaporizes one island and is estimated at 10.4 megatons, or some 750 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb.
1954
March 1
Despite weather reports showing that winds are blowing in the direction of inhabited islands, the Bravo hydrogen bomb test is detonated at Bikini. At 15 megatons, it is 1,000 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb. Within hours a gritty, white ash is enveloping islanders on Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls. A few hours later, American weathermen are exposed to the snowstorm of fallout on Rongerik, and still later, the people of other islands experience the fallout "mist." Those exposed experience nausea, vomiting and itching skin and eyes.
March 3
Rongelap islanders are evacuated 48 hours later, and Utrik is evacuated 72 hours after Bravo. Both groups are taken to Kwajalein for observation. Skin burns on the heavily exposed people begin to develop, and later their hair falls out. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a statement to the press calling Bravo a "routine atomic test" and stating that some Americans and Marshallese were "unexpectedly exposed to some radioactivity. There were no burns. All were reported well."
March 7
Project 4.1 … establishes a secret medical group to monitor and evaluate the Rongelap and Utrik people.
April
A Project 4.1 memo recommends that the exposed Rongelap people should have "no exposure for [the] rest of [their] lives."
Editor's note: Bomb testing in the islands would continue for four more years. Over the next four decades, the lasting effects of contamination and relocation would result in a class action lawsuit and monetary compensation for Marshall Islanders. According to the Bikini Atoll Web site, "The Nuclear Claims Tribunal … was underfunded and does not have the money to pay for [the final, March 2001] claim. It is now up to the people of Bikini to petition the U.S. Congress for the money to fulfill this award. This is expected to take many years and it is uncertain if the United States will honor their claim."
For more on-line information about nuclear testing on Bikini, visit www.bikiniatoll.com/history.